Mobile penetration rates in Russia and Ukraine exceeded 100%

The number of mobile telephony subscribers in Russia grew by 20% year on year and reached 152 million in 2006, AC&M Consulting reported. This means a nationwide penetration rate of 104.6%. The rate in Russia’s two largest markets – Moscow and St. Petersburg – stood at 156% and 139% respectively.

 

 

The penetration rate in the neighbouring Ukraine also exceeded 100% in 2006. Given such a penetration rate, it appears that there is almost no room for extensive growth on the mobile telephony market. Operators will now have to focus more on operational efficiency, on new services and on customer loyalty programmes. The most important task for leading operators will be to stimulate growth in voice traffic. On the other hand, there is a significant group of people in Russia that still do not have mobile phones. According to varying analyst opinions, the penetration rate – with mobile telephony density understood as the real number of users relative to the entire population – amounts to somewhere between 60% and 80%.

At the same time Russian operators can still increase their subscriber bases by penetrating the former USSR countries, such as Kazakhstan, Belarus, Caucasian and the Middle-Asian republics where penetration rates are rather low – from 7% in Uzbekistan to 52% in Belarus.