Russia possesses the fourth-highest number of internet users, behind Germany, Great Britain and France, according to data from the American company Comscore. In April this year, 31.3 million Russians over the age of 15 visited the World Wide Web. For time spent online, however, Russian users are further down the list, spending an average of 30 minutes a day surfing the net, less than half as much as British users. Internet penetration in Russia is expected to grow by 12-15% in 2009 as broadband access is widened across the country.

The number of registered websites using Russia’s Internet domain code, .ru, reached the two-million mark on Tuesday, two weeks short of the 15th anniversary of its introduction on 7 April 1994. With a surge in registrations of nearly two-thirds recorded between 2007 and 2008, .ru is, after China’s .cn, the world’s fastest-growing national domain. This fact clearly demonstrates increasing computer penetration as well as high interest to the Internet business in the country.

Russia scores third place in Europe and fourth in the world in terms of mobile Internet penetration.

This year Russia ranks 4th in Mobile Internet Penetration, as 11.2% of Russian mobile users access the web through their cell phones, trailing only the U.S. (15.6%), UK (12.9%), and Italy (11.2%) and staying ahead of France, Germany and Spain, as revealed by the Mobile Media Marketplace. The report published by Nielsen Research shows that entertainment-themed websites are the most popular with mobile Internet users in the growing Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) mobile markets.

“Mobile fills an important access gap in nations where Internet access is not always readily available in homes and schools. The development and uptake of mobile data services will have a tremendous positive impact on economies like Brazil, Russia, India and China.”

Source: Nielsen, Mobile Media Marketplace report

There are more than 17 million mobile users in Russia regularly access the Internet. The mobile data transmission market in Russia will increase from $400 million in 2007 to $4.8 billion in 2012, while the Russian mobile content market will grow from $800 million last year to $5.4 billion in 2012.

Moscow has become the unquestionable leader in the number of public Wi Fi hotspots, reports Laptop online magazine. Having been a runner up in Wi Fi spots for a few years, Moscow offers more than ten thousand places to get an easy access to the web, leaving London and Taipei behind.

Recently, Russia has been placed on the 4th place in the world in Internet penetration and the total size of the Russian cellular market is estimated 167.7 million, giving the country a penetration rate of almost 120 per cent.

Source: http://laptopmag.jiwire.com

Moscow-based “Public Opinion Foundation” reports that 32.7 mln users in Russia have had a constant Internet access by May 2008, making the number almost 30% of the Russia’s population. This puts Russia on the 4th place in the world in Internet penetration after Germany, Brazil and UK.

The report also points out that 33% of Russian male population and 25% of females in the country are regular Internet users. 69% of the Internet users access the net from home, 40 % use the world wide web from their workplaces. Although less than 10% use their mobile phones to browse the web, the number of mobile Internet users is growing.

As forecasted by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications a few months ago, Russia might as well score the second place in Europe by the end of 2008 with 46 mln. surfers.

The Russian cellular market has still shown incredible growth results as the rolling annual growth rate increased from 14 per cent for the year to 31st December 2007 to almost 16 per cent for the year to 31st March 2008, as reported by FierceMobileContent.com. Net additions of subscribers for the year were 23 million, the highest total since 2006.

In April the total size of the Russian cellular market was estimated 167.7 million, giving the country a penetration rate of 118 per cent, up from 115 per cent at the end of 2007. The bulk of Russian cellular customers are accounted for by three operators, MTS, Vimpelcom and MegaFon, who shares 83 per cent of the market.

Source: http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com

Recently the Russian IT and Communications Ministry has reported that they will do everything possible to provide 95% of schools in the country with broadband Internet access in the new school year of 2007. This penetration level is set in the Ministry's plan endorsed by the Presidential Council for the implementation of the national priority projects and demographic policies.

The program also proposes a new software purchasing scheme. All schools will receive standard software set - both basics and modern office and graphics processing applications. By improving communication environment, Ministry expects a rise in hardware (primarily PC) sales next year.

 

Russian mobile phones market is on the tremendous rise as it was reported by the Federal Customs Service in the end of January. The handset import to Russia doubled in 2006 reaching the units volume of 31.17 million and the monetary volume of US$4.51 billion (which is the triple growth compared to the previous year). Newsworthy is the fact that an average price of an imported mobile phone increased by 45%.

The growth in import volume is partially attributed to the ongoing efforts of Russian authorities to eliminate illegal imports. The natural driver to that is the growing mobile telephony penetration in the country. As AC&M Consulting reported, the number of mobile subscribers rose by 20% and reached 152 mln in 2006. That means that the penetration rate is of 104% on the national basis. Two major cities of Russia - Moscow and St. Petersburg - reached the penetration ratios of 156% and 139% respectively.

Source: Prime-Tass

J’son & Partners reported recently that the Russian mobile content market will demonstrate growth of 56% this year amounting to $530m-$560m in monetary volume.

The preferences of mobile subscribers are changing in comparison with the previous periods. There is a definite shift in content type this year, going from simple services like ringtones and such, to voice services (growth of 250%) and mobile entertainment (growth of 60%).

 

While the basic products segment of the Russian mobile market has nearly reached its primarily saturation, Telecom operators are starting to look for new service options to maintain their growth in the future.

As a clear reflection of this trend, two Russian mobile carriers made their bids for obtaining WiMAX frequencies. Recently, Russian telecoms regulating authority issued a WiMAX license to the second largest mobile operator in the country - Vimpecom. So, Vimplecom received frequencies in 34 Russian cities. Vimpelcom has also requested an extension of the primary frequencies license.

At the same time, Megafon has also made a bid for the WiMAX license.

Source: Prime-Tass