SUBSCRIBER NUMBERS SURGE IN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE IN 2005.

The number of mobile telephony subscribers in Russia surged by 70% last year to 125.8 million, and by 118% in Ukraine to 30.4 million, according to a statement released on January 17 by Russian sector analysts and statistics specialists ACM. The number of subscribers (i.e. valid SIM cards) increased by 6.2 million over December 2005 alone, and by 51.4 million over 2005 as a whole in Russia, according to ACM, which reports a mobile telephony penetration rate of 86.6% in the country. The group reports 135 SIM cards per 100 inhabitants in Moscow and 118 per 100 inhabitants in St Petersburg. These rates can be explained by the fact that many Russians have several telephones and use...