MTS takes lead in net mobile communications subscriber growth in Feb - AC&M
MOSCOW. March 23 (Interfax) - Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) took the lead in net subscriber growth in Russia in February.
The company's market share in February was 51.6% of net sign-ups, and the operator's subscriber base in Russia grew from 71.5 million in January to 71.86 million in February, according to a report from the research company AC&M Consulting.
January's subscription leader VimpelCom increased its base with 20.1% new sign-ups to 52.7 million from 52.5 million. MegaFon saw its base increase slightly, to 56.47 million from 46 million, with 3.1% of the new sign-ups.
Second by subscriber-inflow was Tele2, whose share was 25.2% of new subscriptions and whose subscriber base increased from 18.6 million to 18.8 million.
In Moscow, MTS's share of new sign-ups was 43.5%, MegaFon's - 38.5% and VimpelCom's - 15.9%. In the regions, VimpelCom signed-up 15.2% of new subscribers, Tele2 - 34.7% and MTS - 50.5%, while MegaFon demonstrated negative growth.
The ten biggest Russian cellular operators also include: OJSC Uralsvyazinform with 4.5 million subscribers in February (4.7 million in January), OJSC Sibirtelecom and its subsidiaries - 3.67 million (3.674 million), NSS, a subsidiary of Volgatelecom - 3.67 million (3.65 million), the SMARTS company group - 2.5 million (2.5 million), Yekaterinburg Cellular Communications LLC - 2.09 million (2.08 million), and Vladivostok-based OJSC New Telephone Company - 1.53 million (1.52 million).
Factoring in its foreign subsidiaries, MTS's combined subscriber base reached 108.9 million in February (108.3 million in January), according to AC&M Consulting. VimpelCom's was 92.8 million (92.7 million), MegaFon's - 57.1 million (57.07 million), and Tele2's (including its Kazakh subsidiary) - 19.2 million (18.9 million).
The overall number of cellphone-service users in Russia grew by 0.6 million in February to 220.6 million. The penetration level increased 0.4 of a percentage point to 151.9%.