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04
Jul

Regions Accelerate

With 1.6 mln new users subscribed to mobile services, June became one of the most successfull months for Russian mobile operators. The healthy growth was mainly fueled by booming regional markets.

Total number of cellular subscribers reached 25 mln milestone while Moscow market grew over 9 mln subscribers. We expect that by the year-end 2003 Russian cellular market will expand to 32 mln users.

Top 10 Cellular Operators

Company June 30, 2003 May 31, 2003
Total Moscow Total Moscow
MTS* 11,490,000 4,135,000 10,815,000 3,945,000
Vimpelcom 7,455,000 4,435,000 6,951,000 4,235,000
MegaFon** 4,255,000 440,300 4,009,393 407,936
SMARTS Group 807,700   758,400  
Uralsvyazinform 726,000   659,500  
Siberia Telecom 298,331   234,619  
N.Novgorod Cellular 248,025   233,100  
Tomsk Cellular Communications 158,400   145,799  
Ekaterinburg Cellular Communications 143,500   129,800  
SibChallenge 128,000   120,000  

*including UMC of Ukraine (2 mln) and Belarus subscribers (170,000)
** including 7,200 in TT-Mobile (Tajikistan)

Although MTS remains a strong leader in regions, Vimpelcom's regional expansion becomes more and more aggressive - the company managed to outnumber MTS in net additions on many regional markets. St.Petersburg is the most developed market outside Moscow with mobile services penetration about to hit 40%.

St.Petersburg Market, June 2003

Net Additions in Regions, Including St.Petersburg

Vimpelcom has more than 50,000 users in St.Petersburg - the number that the company reached in 2.5 months of operations in the city. The company also enlisted its subscriber #7,000,000 in June.

Russian Cellular Market Breakdown, June 2003

NOTE: The chart above includes only Russian subscribers, all CIS networks are excluded from the calculation.

Moscow Market

Total market size in the Moscow license area has reached 9 mln users bringing cellular penetration in the region to 53%. According to the preliminary results of 2002 nation-wide census, population of Moscow and region is 17 mln. Since the final results of the census are not available, we shall use the preliminary data from now on.

In June Vimpelcom became a leader in Moscow net additions regaining the position lost to MTS in December 2002.

Moscow Net Additions in June 2003