MOSCOW-Russia boasted unexpected major growth in the total number of mobile-phone users in 2002, however, various governmental bodies differed in estimates.
The Communications Ministry said the number of subscribers grew 2.2-fold from 8.04 million to 18 million, with the country’s penetration level rising from 5.6 percent to 12.5 percent. However, the State Statistics Committee said the 2002 growth comprised 8.8 million subscribers, upping the total to 16.6 million.
Independent analysts were close to the Communications Ministry figures. Pyramid Research said there were 17.8 million mobile-phone users in Russia in 2002, while ACM-Consulting evidently decided to reconcile the estimates, saying the total already rose to 20 million by the beginning of March 2003.
The Communications Ministry admitted its earlier growth forecast was absolutely wrong. It predicted the total subscriber figure to be 9.24 million in 2005 and 22.2 million in 2010. “A more realistic forecast is 35 million by 2010,” it said.
However, Pyramid Research predicted there will be 27 million subscribers by the end of 2003.
Russia has a population of 145 million.
