agreement with the TurkmenTelecom enterprise of Ministry of Communications of Turkmenistan which says that MTS Turkmenistan will on a monthly basis pay to TurkmenTelecom 30% of its net profit derived from operations in Turkmenistan. This agreement is for five years and may be extended another five years subject to some conditions. The company has also been granted GSM and 3G licenses for a three-year term. MTS Turkmenistan in September 2017 faced termination of the permit to use the dedicated radio frequency spectrum and some other required resources, the provision of communication services to subscribers in Turkmenistan was suspended. As of 2016, MTS-Turkmenistan had 1.7 million subscribers at its peak. MTS Uzbekistan Uzdunrobita was the largest mobile phone operator in Uzbekistan in the 1990s and 2000s. Uzdunrobita was founded in 1991, as a joint venture between a group of American investors, the International Communications Group, with a 45% stake; and the government of what was then the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, with a 55% stake. When Uzbekistan declared independence several weeks later, the registration of the joint venture was shifted from Moscow to Tashkent, with the government stake taken over by the independent Uzbek government. The company first turned a profit in 1993. By 1996, it had $50 million in annual revenues, 7,000 subscribers, and employed 224 staff. Gulnora Karimova gained control of the firm in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and by 2005 it was 74% owned by Russia's MTS, which paid $121 million for the stake. In 2006 it was reported to have 250,000 subscribers, ahead of Daewoo Unitel, which had 100,000, and a number of much smaller firms. The company launched an LTE network on 2.6 GHz in July 2010, and receive a license to expand it on 700 MHz in December 2010. Brand UMC in Uzbekistan existed until mid-2007, when major rebranding campaign occurred turning UMC into MTS. In July 2012, authorities in Uzbekistan announced the suspension of the operating license of MTS's subsidiary Uzdunrobita. Officials argued MTS-Uzbekistan has been responsible for a series of technical violations, and its operations have been suspended beginning on the evening of July 17. According to the MTS, the suspension could affect millions of Uzbek mobile phone users. An MTS statement said the firm has some 10 million clients among Uzbekistan's population of 28 million. In August 2012, the government of Uzbekistan revoked the company's operating license and arrested several