Russia’s carriers effectively boycotted Samsung phones when the country’s largest mobile carrier – Mobile TeleSystems PJSC – started undercutting all of them on price by taking advantage of the volume discounts that Samsung provides to channel partners. VimpelCom operates more than 3,000 stores in Russia and it stopped buying handsets from Samsung in protest. Major retailer MegaFon did the same. Mobile TeleSystems effectively had a monopoly on Samsung smartphones and it reaped the benefits as Samsung handsets drove a 63 percent increase in the carrier’s total smartphone shipments in the first half of this year.
Chalk this up as a win for Samsung because VimpelCom has confirmed that it’s resuming sales of Samsung phones in the country as it seeks to cash in on the Galaxy S7 demand. MegaFon is discussing cooperation with Samsung and restarting sales of its handsets in the near future.
