Largest Russian mobile carrier MTS takes on Uber in push to diversify

Moscow

MOBILE TeleSystems PJSC is offering online taxi hailing and medical appointments over video, as Russia's largest mobile carrier pursues new apps for revenue growth amid stiff wireless price competition.

The carrier made a speedy foray into Russia's taxi business in October after Uber Technologies Inc in July agreed to merge its operations into a joint venture with rival Yandex NV. That digital service and others could make up 10 per cent of MTS's sales in a few years and probably more than half of its revenue in the longer term, Vyacheslav Nikolaev, the company's head of marketing, said in Moscow.