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Telecom
December 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
4G growing fast, 5G to follow in Russia and neighboring countries, says GSMA report
East-West Digital News
GSMA Intelligence, the research branch of inter- national mobile operator association GSMA, has just released an overview of the mobile economy in Russia and 11 neighboring countries: Arme- nia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
The findings of the report may be summarized as follows:
Mobile penetration rates
The region was home to 232 million unique mobile subscribers at the end of 2017, which corresponds to a rather high penetration rate – 80% vs. global average of 66%. The three largest markets – Rus- sia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan – together account for 80% of the region’s total subscriber base.
With 89% of the population subscribing to mo- bile services, Russia is one of the most highly
penetrated countries in the world –ahead of the European and Northern America averages (85% and 84%, respectively) as well as Latin America and Asia Pacific (both 67%). Some of Russia’s neighbors are at a lower stage of development, such as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan with 60% subscriber penetration rates.
“Given the relatively high level of penetration, growth over the next few years will be limited,” expect the GSMA analysts.
In 2025, the number of mobile subscribers in Russia will be the same as in 2017 (128 million), while the region will see only a 2 percentage-point increase in penetration (242 million unique sub- scribers in the region, accounting for 82% of the population. Almost half the additional subscribers will come from Uzbekistan, a country that is the third most populous but one of the least penetrat- ed in the region.
The mobile economy in Russia and neighboring countries (2017-2025)