Current situation
According to the latest report The telecommunications market in Russia 2011. Development forecasts for 2011-2015 published by PMR, a market research company, the value of the telecommunications services market in Russia increased by 17.3% year on year to 27.3bn in 2010, from approximately 23.2bn in 2009. The growth rate measured in local currency was lower and amounted to 10%. It should be noted that PMR last year forecasts concerning the telecoms market value in 2010, excluding exchange rate fluctuations, assumed the growth rate of 4 p.p. lower than the actual result.
Overall economic recovery in the country continue to be one of the main market growth drivers in 2010. The demand for telecommunications services in Russia went up after the crisis which hit the Russian economy end of 2008. In 2010, after a sharp decline in 2009, operators also increased the investments in the construction of new networks and the improvement of service quality.
The Russian telecommunications market has been steadily increasing, starting in 2000 with the development of mobile telephony and internet access. In the last two years, the market was affected by the migration of voice traffic from fixed to mobile networks and also to the internet and, as a result, the segment of fixed-line telephony began to stagnate. The growth of mobile voice services also declined with the increasing maturity of this market. The most dynamic during recent years was the segment of internet access, including both fixed and mobile technologies. This market was an area of business growth for the operators in 2009-2010, and it will continue to play a role of the development driver for the entire telecommunications market in Russia, considering its relatively low maturity.
Mobile telephony is by far the largest segment of the Russian telecommunications market. Based on the revenue reports provided by operators, total sales of mobile voice and non-voice services in Russia in 2010 amounted to RUB 710bn (17.7bn), which is 10.6% more than in the previous year measured in roubles, or 17.9% measured in euros. The mobile telephony market accounted for the largest part of the telecommunications spending in Russia last year. Even if to exclude mobile VAS and to consider only the mobile voice segment, the mobile telephony share would reach the level of almost 50% in 2010, while the total number of registered SIM cards already exceeded 150% of the total population of Russia.
Provision of access to the internet remains the most dynamic and fast growing segment of the telecommunications market in Russia, which increased by 30% year on year in 2010. This growth of the market was driven by quickly increasing penetration of fixed-line broadband but also enhanced by the fast expansion of 3G networks and the operators active promotion of mobile internet.