35 Million Russians Will Be Using Mobile Phones by End of 2003 - 6 March, 2003

About 35 million Russians will own mobile phones by the end of 2003. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, this was announced by Russian Minister for Communications and Leonid Reiman at a press conference on Wednesday March 5.

He said that the number of mobile phone users in Russia rose by two or three times in 2002. According to the ministry's data, the number of people with mobile phones actually rose from 7.8 million to 20 million. In Mr Reiman's opinion, 'there is no reason to believe that the spread of mobile phones will slow down at all in 2003, as there is already a noticeable shift in the market towards the regions of Russia.' For example, the minister said, 8 of the 20 million mobile phones are owned by people in rural areas.