MTS Overtakes Vimpelcom in Moscow

January did not bring any major surprises to the cellular development in Russia. The number of celluar customers increased 1.73 million or additional 1.2% penetration. Back one year ago in January 2003 1.04 million new cellular users were added.

However, Moscow - the largest cellular market, did not follow the pan-Russian trend and signed less customers in January 2004 than in Janaury 2003 (248k vs 287k). It's important to notice though, that the penetration in the Russian capital (y-o-y) jumped 25% to 69.1% as of Jan 31, 2004.

Also for the first time in the past 7 months MTS outnumbererd its main rival in Moscow - Vimpelcom - in terms of net additions. ACM Consulting says that it believes it is a "cyclic effect" rather than anything else with the very same story hapenning exactly a year ago (MTS leads during first part of the year while Vimpelcom takes the lead in the second).

Based on year-end regional subscription statistics we have now revised our models for the subscriber growth: we think Russia may hit 57.7 million subscribers by year end 2004.

Posted to the site on 6th February 2004