Regional Mobile Growth In Full Swing
Russian mobile market grew by record 1.8 mln users in September 2003 fueled mainly by strong growth in regions. Moscow and St.Petersburg together added about 600 thousand of new subscribers while regional networks attracted the remainder bringing penetration of mobile services to 20.9%.
If the trend persists, there will be over 35 mln of cellular users in Russia by year-end 2003.
Top 10 Cellular Operators
| Company | September 30, 2003 | August 31, 2003 | ||
| Total | Moscow | Total | Moscow | |
| MTS* | 14,270,000 | 4,490,000 | 13,280,000 | 4,390,000 |
| Vimpelcom | 9,250,000 | 5,025,000 | 8,530,000 | 4,835,000 |
| MegaFon** | 5,342,625 | 755,910 | 4,942,745 | 593,643 |
| SMARTS Group | 970,000 | 915,000 | ||
| Uralsvyazinform | 947,600 | 869,800 | ||
| Siberia Telecom | 405,000 | 352,744 | ||
| N.Novgorod Cellular | 295,738 | 279,087 | ||
| Ekaterinburg Cellular Communications | 165,234 | 161,490 | ||
| Dal Telecom International | 150,711 | 134,453 | ||
| New Telephone Company | 116,7881 | 107,387 | ||
* including UMC of Ukraine (2.55 mln), MTS Belarus subscribers (310,000) and recently acquired Tomsk Cellular Communications (195,000)
** including 9,000 in TT-Mobile (Tajikistan)
Russian Cellular Market Breakdown
Penetration in Moscow and St.Petersburg is significantly higher compared to the rest of the country so it comes as no surprise that the cellular growth finally spilled over to regions.
Russian Mobile Subscribers
| Mobile Subscribers | Sep. 30, 2003 | Aug. 31, 2003 |
| Russia | 30,280,000 | 28,480,000 |
| Penetration | 20.9% | 19.6% |
| Moscow | 10,326,000 | 9,870,000 |
| Penetration | 60.8% | 58.1% |
| St.Petersburg | 3,123,000 | 2,971,000 |
| Penetration | 49.2% | 47.2% |
Vimpelcom has won the September race for new users in St.Pete for the first time since launching its network in the region. The company earned 34% of net additions followed by MTS (29%) and MegaFon (25%).
Moscow Market
Vimpelcom's Moscow client base grew over 5 mln with 190 thsd of new users added in September. The company leads in Moscow followed by MTS (4.49 mln) and MegaFon (0.756 mln).
MegaFon managed to attract a significant portion of net additions for the second month in a row. The company outperformed MTS thanks to its popular O'Lite tariff plan. MTS explains the slowdown in net additions by a high churn rate on its contract tariff plans resulted from swithching of its contract users to the company's pre-paid tariffs started two month ago.
Moscow Net Additions, August 2003
