Number of Mobile Phone Subscribers in Russia Doubled in 2002

The number of mobile phone subscribers in Russia more than doubled in 2002 totaling 17.8 million people. These figures were provided by the Jason & Partners consulting company. According to Jason & Partners, the market leader for mobile phones in Russia is Mobile TeleSystems which currently has about 6.41 million subscribers in Russia. The second largest provider of mobile phones is VympelCom with 5.08 subscribers. Other companies include Megaphone with 2.95 million, SMARTS with 540 thousand, Uralsvyazinform with 462 thousand, TAIF-Telcom with 267.6 thousand, NSS with 172 thousand, StavTeleSot with 193 thousand, Tatincom with 117 thousand and Tomsk Cellular Network with 101 thousand.

Jason & Partners experts believe that there will be fast growing demand in large Russian cities for 2.5G cellular networks, which provide GPRS batch communication. 3G networks, which offer a visual image, will not yet be in great demend.

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