2008 Europe - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine

Publication Overview
Executive Summary
Table of Contents

Publication Overview

This report covers Russia and the neighbouring countries of Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. Trends and developments in telecommunications, mobile, Internet, broadband, digital TV and converging media including VoIP, VoD and IPTV developments. Subjects include:

Market and industry analyses, trends and developments

Facts, figures and statistics

Industry and regulatory issues

Research, Marketing, Benchmarking

Major Players, Revenues, Subscribers, Network deployments

VoIP, ADSL, ADSL2+, FttH, WiFi, WiMAX, IPTV, VoD, triple play, digital TV, DTTV, i-mode, 3G

Researcher:- Paul Kwon

Current publication date:- October 2008 (7^th Edition)

Next publication date:- October 2009

Executive Summary

BuddeComm’s annual publication 2008 Europe – Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine delves into the expanding telecom markets of Eastern Europe’s most populous region. Rapid modernisation and development is transforming the region’s markets as existing and new market participants upgrade or deploy infrastructure to introduce new or competing services such as broadband, IPTV, triple play and 3G/HSDPA mobile broadband.

This report is essential reading for those seeking a succinct overview of the telecom markets of Eastern Europe’s most populous region, including an assessment of sector liberalisation and privatisation, together with the key regulatory measures which affect competition and investment. Significant alternative operators in liberalised markets are introduced and new infrastructure deployments covered. The expanding broadband market in each country is examined, detailing subscriber figures, service providers and technologies used. All mobile network operators in the region are presented, along with essential financial and operational data while developments in each country’s digital TV and convergence market are also highlighted.

Key highlights:

· Broadband continues to gain popularity on the back of competition. Poor regulatory access regimes in all four countries have resulted in alternative operators deploying their own access networks, focusing predominantly on Fibre-to-the-Building, cable and wireless technologies. With incumbents in all four countries still majority state-owned, this scenario is unlikely to change in 2009.

· Broadband connections exceed dial-up in Russia, where FTTx is the most popular broadband access technology due to large scale take-up of the technology by both incumbent and alternative operators.

· In Moldova current growth rates point to broadband connections exceeding that of dial-up in 2009.

· Moving to take advantage of the underserved broadband market are the region’s CDMA mobile operators, all of which are minor players in increasingly saturated mobile voice markets. Such operators in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine are expanding network coverage, upgrading network speeds and launching competitively priced mobile broadband services bundled with prepaid data bundles.

· In Belarus, the CDMA operator is the only mobile operator offering mobile broadband services while in Ukraine a group of CDMA operators that previously focused only on fixed-line services are now offering aggressively priced mobile broadband services.

· Moldova’s two dominant GSM operators launched WCDMA 3G/HSDPA networks in late-2008, leaving Belarus as the only country yet to launch WCDMA 3G services. Competing 3G services availability is expected to drive down mobile broadband rates that, coupled with increasingly sophisticated handsets, will expand the market for mobile content and applications. This will particularly be the case for countries with saturated mobile voice markets, such as Russia where the three major mobile operators are planning to expand during 2009 initial WCDMA 3G networks.

· Ukraine’s cable market has undergone consolidation, with one operator dominating the market and in a position to better compete with the expected 2009 launch of IPTV services by the telecoms incumbent.

· Across the region IPTV is becoming commonplace, with launches undertaken in Belarus, Moldova and Russia. IPTV is most likely to be championed by telecom incumbents that are on the privatisation agenda, as is the case in Russia and Ukraine.

Mobile subscribers and penetration rate in Belarus, Moldova, Russia & Ukraine – March 2008

Country	Subscribers (million)	Penetration
Belarus	7.5	72.5%
Moldova	1.9	42.7%
Russia	168.7	118.8%
Ukraine	54.9	118.6%

(Source: BuddeComm based on ITU and Global Mobile data)

Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.

1. Russia
- 1.1 Key statistics
- 1.2 Telecommunications market
  - 1.2.1 Overview of Russia’s telecom market
- 1.3 Regulatory environment
  - 1.3.1 History
  - 1.3.2 Regulatory authority
  - 1.3.3 Telecom sector liberalisation in Russia
- 1.4 Fixed network operators in Russia
  - 1.4.1 Market overview
  - 1.4.2 Svyazinvest
  - 1.4.3 Golden Telecom
  - 1.4.4 Multiregional Transit Telecom
  - 1.4.5 TransTeleCom
  - 1.4.6 PeterStar
  - 1.4.7 ER-Telecom
  - 1.4.8 Comstar-UTS/MGTS
- 1.5 Telecommunications infrastructure
  - 1.5.1 Introduction
  - 1.5.2 Local networks
  - 1.5.3 National networks
  - 1.5.4 International infrastructure
  - 1.5.5 Telecoms and IT
- 1.6 Internet market
  - 1.6.1 Overview
  - 1.6.2 Internet access locations
  - 1.6.3 ISP market
- 1.7 Broadband market
  - 1.7.1 Overview
  - 1.7.2 Forecasts – broadband market to 2018
  - 1.7.3 Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
  - 1.7.4 Cable modems
  - 1.7.5 Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH) networks
  - 1.7.6 Broadband Powerline (BPL)
  - 1.7.7 Wireless broadband
- 1.8 Convergence
  - 1.8.1 Introduction
  - 1.8.2 Triple play
  - 1.8.3 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
  - 1.8.4 Digital content
  - 1.8.5 Overview of broadcasting market
  - 1.8.6 Digital TV
- 1.9 Mobile communications
  - 1.9.1 Overview & analysis of Russia’s mobile market
  - 1.9.2 Regulatory issues
  - 1.9.3 Mobile technologies
  - 1.9.4 Major mobile operators
  - 1.9.5 Mobile voice services
  - 1.9.6 Mobile data services
  - 1.9.7 Mobile content and applications
2. Belarus
- 2.1 Key statistics
- 2.2 Telecommunications market
  - 2.2.1 Overview of Belarus’ telecom market
- 2.3 Regulatory environment
  - 2.3.1 History
  - 2.3.2 Regulatory authority
  - 2.3.3 Telecom sector liberalisation in Belarus
- 2.4 Fixed network operator in Belarus
  - 2.4.1 Beltelecom
- 2.5 Telecommunications infrastructure
  - 2.5.1 National telecom network
  - 2.5.2 International infrastructure
  - 2.5.3 Infrastructure developments
  - 2.5.4 Telecoms & IT
- 2.6 Internet market
  - 2.6.1 Overview
  - 2.6.2 Internet access locations
- 2.7 Broadband market
  - 2.7.1 Overview
  - 2.7.2 Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
  - 2.7.3 Cable modems
  - 2.7.4 Wireless broadband
- 2.8 Convergence
  - 2.8.1 Overview of broadcasting market
  - 2.8.2 Digital TV
- 2.9 Mobile communications
  - 2.9.1 Overview of Belarus’ mobile market
  - 2.9.2 Regulatory issues
  - 2.9.3 Mobile technologies
  - 2.9.4 Major mobile operators
  - 2.9.5 Mobile data services
  - 2.9.6 Mobile content and applications
3. Moldova
- 3.1 Key statistics
- 3.2 Telecommunications market
  - 3.2.1 Overview of Moldova’s telecom market
- 3.3 Regulatory environment
  - 3.3.1 Background
  - 3.3.2 Regulatory authority
  - 3.3.3 Telecom sector liberalisation in Moldova
- 3.4 Fixed network operators in Moldova
  - 3.4.1 Moldtelecom
  - 3.4.2 InterDnestrCom
- 3.5 Telecommunications infrastructure
  - 3.5.1 National telecom network
  - 3.5.2 International infrastructure
- 3.6 Internet market
  - 3.6.1 Overview
  - 3.6.2 ISP market
- 3.7 Broadband market
- 3.8 Convergence
  - 3.8.1 Overview of media convergence
  - 3.8.2 Overview of broadcasting market
  - 3.8.3 Digital TV
- 3.9 Mobile communications
  - 3.9.1 Overview of Moldova’s mobile market
  - 3.9.2 Regulatory issues
  - 3.9.3 Mobile technologies
  - 3.9.4 Major mobile operators
  - 3.9.5 Mobile voice services
  - 3.9.6 Mobile data services
  - 3.9.7 Mobile content and applications
4. Ukraine
- 4.1 Key statistics
- 4.2 Telecommunications market
  - 4.2.1 Overview of Ukraine’s telecom market
- 4.3 Regulatory environment
  - 4.3.1 History
  - 4.3.2 Regulatory authority
  - 4.3.3 Telecom sector liberalisation in Ukraine
- 4.4 Fixed network operators in Ukraine
  - 4.4.1 Overview of operators
  - 4.4.2 Ukrtelecom
  - 4.4.3 Datagroup
  - 4.4.4 Eurotranstelecom
  - 4.4.5 Golden Telecom
  - 4.4.6 Farlep
  - 4.4.7 Wireless Local Loop (WLL) operators
- 4.5 Telecommunications infrastructure
  - 4.5.1 National telecom network
  - 4.5.2 International infrastructure
  - 4.5.3 Telecoms and IT
- 4.6 Internet market
  - 4.6.1 Overview
- 4.7 Broadband market
  - 4.7.1 Overview
  - 4.7.2 Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
  - 4.7.3 Cable modems
  - 4.7.4 Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH)
  - 4.7.5 Wireless broadband
- 4.8 Convergence
  - 4.8.1 Introduction
  - 4.8.2 Triple play
  - 4.8.3 Overview of broadcasting market
  - 4.8.4 Digital TV
- 4.9 Mobile communications
  - 4.9.1 Overview of Ukraine’s mobile market
  - 4.9.2 Regulatory issues
  - 4.9.3 Mobile technologies
  - 4.9.4 Major mobile operators
  - 4.9.5 Mobile voice services
  - 4.9.6 Mobile data services
  - 4.9.7 Mobile content and applications
5. Glossary of Abbreviations

Table 1 – Country statistics Russia – 2008
Table 2 – Telephone network statistics – 2007
Table 3 – Internet user statistics – 2007
Table 4 – Broadband statistics – 2007
Table 5 – Mobile statistics – March 2008
Table 6 – National telecommunications authority
Table 7 – Monthly household expenditure on telecom services – 2007
Table 8 – Centertelecom revenue breakdown by service – 2006 - 2007
Table 9 – Dalsvyaz revenue breakdown by service – 2006 - 2007
Table 10 – North-West Telecom revenue breakdown by service – 2006 - 2007
Table 11 – Sibirtelecom revenue breakdown by service – 2006 - 2007
Table 12 – Southern Telecom Company revenue breakdown by service – 2006 - 2007
Table 13 – Uralsvyazinform revenue breakdown by service – 2006 - 2007
Table 14 – VolgaTelecom revenue breakdown by service – 2006 - 2007
Table 15 – Central Telegraph revenue breakdown by service – 2006 - 2007
Table 16 – ER-Telecom financial data – 2007
Table 17 – ER Telecom operational data – 2007 - 2008
Table 18 – MGTS revenue breakdown by service – 2006 - 2007
Table 19 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity in Russia – 1995 - 2007
Table 20 – Svyazinvest fixed-line traffic and annual change – 2007
Table 21 – Teledensity levels per Svyazinvest operator – 2005 - 2007
Table 22 – Urban and rural digitisation per Svyazinvest operator – 2006 - 2007
Table 23 – North-West Telecom network data – 2005 - 2007
Table 24 – Centertelecom network data – 2005 - 2007
Table 25 – VolgaTelecom network data – 2005 - 2007
Table 26 – Southern Telecom Company network data – 2005 - 2007
Table 27 – Uralsvyazinform network data – 2005 - 2007
Table 28 – Sibirtelecom network data – 2005 - 2007
Table 29 – Dalsvyaz network data – 2005 - 2007
Table 30 – Central Telegraph network data – 2005 - 2007
Table 31 – MGTS network data – 2005 - 2007
Table 32 – Russian IT market revenue – 2001 - 2007
Table 33 – Search engine traffic market share – 2007
Table 34 – Registered number of domains – 2004 - 2007
Table 35 – Internet users and penetration rate – 1998 - 2010
Table 36 – Percentage of population using the Internet per location – 2001 - 2007
Table 37 – Percentage of Internet connections per access type – 2007
Table 38 – Svyazinvest Internet revenue and annual change – 2007
Table 39 – RTComm financial data – 2001 - 2007
Table 40 – RTComm performance data – 2001 - 2007
Table 41 – Broadband subscribers and penetration rate – 2003 - 2007
Table 42 – Moscow broadband ISP subscribers & market share per operator – 2007
Table 43 – Forecast broadband market share – 2010
Table 44 – Svyazinvest broadband subscribers – 2006 - 2008
Table 45 – Forecast broadband subscribers – higher growth scenario – 2008 - 2012; 2018
Table 46 – Forecast broadband subscribers – lower growth scenario – 2008 - 2012; 2018
Table 47 – TV households by broadcasting method – 2007
Table 48 – Forecast digital TV market share per broadcaster – 2010
Table 49 – Estimated total cost of DTTV implementation
Table 50 – Total mobile handsets sold and value – 2004 - 2007
Table 51 – Mobile operators, subscribers and annual change – March 2008
Table 52 – Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 1995 - 2008
Table 53 – MTS financial data – 2005 - 2007
Table 54 – MTS operation data and ARPU – 2001 - 2007
Table 55 – VimpelCom ARPU, MOU and churn for active subscribers – 2001 - 2007
Table 56 – VimpelCom financial data – 2005 - 2007
Table 57 – MTS & VimpelCom prepaid subscribers – 2004 - 2007
Table 58 – Mobile VAS as proportion of total mobile revenue – 2002 - 2007
Table 59 – Breakdown of mobile VAS revenue by service – 2007
Table 60 – Breakdown of mobile VAS revenue by operator – 2007
Table 61 – Mobile Internet usage in Russia & Moscow – 2007
Table 62 – Regular mobile Internet users per selected operators – 2007
Table 63 – Top 5 mobile Internet website categories – March 2008
Table 64 – Breakdown of mobile content revenue by operator – 2007
Table 65 – Country statistics Belarus – 2008
Table 66 – Telephone network statistics – 2007
Table 67 – Internet user statistics – 2007
Table 68 – Internet subscriber statistics – 2007
Table 69 – Broadband subscriber statistics – 2007
Table 70 – Mobile statistics – March 2008
Table 71 – National telecommunications authority
Table 72 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity in Belarus – 1995; 1997; 1999 - 2007
Table 73 – Top 10 websites in Belarus – August 2008
Table 74 – Internet users, subscribers and penetration rate – 1996; 1998 - 2007
Table 75 – Broadband subscribers and penetration rate – 2003 - 2007
Table 76 – Population coverage by broadcaster – August 2008
Table 77 – Mobile operators, subscribers and annual change – March 2008
Table 78 – Mobile subscribers and penetration – 1999 - 2008
Table 79 – MDC revenue, EBITDA and operating income – 2007
Table 80 – MDC postpaid, prepaid and blended ARPU – 2007
Table 81 – Country statistics Moldova – 2008
Table 82 – Telephone network statistics – 2007
Table 83 – Internet user statistics – 2007
Table 84 – Internet subscriber statistics – 2007
Table 85 – Broadband statistics – 2007
Table 86 – Mobile statistics – March 2008
Table 87 – National telecommunications authority
Table 88 – Total telecom industry revenue by service type – 2005 - 2007
Table 89 – Total telecom industry investment by service type – 2004 - 2007
Table 90 – Fixed line revenue by service – 2007
Table 91 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity in Moldova – 1995 - 2007
Table 92 – Internet users, subscribers and penetration rate – 1995; 1997; 1999 - 2007
Table 93 – ISP market share by revenue – 2006 - 2007
Table 94 – Broadband subscribers and penetration rate – 2001 - 2007
Table 95 – Broadband subscribers by access type – 2005 - 2007
Table 96 – Broadband ISP market share by subscribers – 2005 - 2007
Table 97 – Broadcasting sector revenue & investment – 2004 - 2007
Table 98 – Total cable TV subscribers – 2005 - 2007
Table 99 – Mobile operators, subscribers and annual change – March 2008
Table 100 – Mobile subscribers and penetration – 1998 - 2008
Table 101 – Mobile market revenue by operator – 2004 - 2007
Table 102 – Mobile market ARPU by operator – 2004 - 2007
Table 103 – Total mobile revenue by service – 2007
Table 104 – Total SMS & MMS messages sent – 2002 - 2007
Table 105 – Total SMS messages sent per operator – 2003 - 2007
Table 106 – Country statistics Ukraine – 2008
Table 107 – Telephone network statistics – 2007
Table 108 – Internet user statistics – 2007
Table 109 – Internet subscriber statistics – 2007
Table 110 – Broadband statistics – March 2008
Table 111 – Mobile statistics – March 2008
Table 112 – National telecommunications authority
Table 113 – Telecoms market revenue by sector and annual change – January - June 2008
Table 114 – Fixed lines in service in Ukraine - 1995 - 2007
Table 115 – Registered top level domains (TLDs) – April 2007
Table 116 – Internet users and penetration rate – 1999 - 2007
Table 117 – PC penetration – 2000 - 2007
Table 118 – Broadband subscribers and penetration rate – 2005 - 2008
Table 119 – Broadband subscribers per significant ISP – March 2008
Table 120 – Prime time audience share by broadcaster – 2004 - 2007
Table 121 – All day audience share by broadcaster – 2004 - 2007
Table 122 – Volia subscribers by service – June 2007
Table 123 – Mobile operators, subscribers and annual change – March 2008
Table 124 – Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 1995 - 2008
Table 125 – Ukrainian Mobile Communications ARPU, MOU and churn – 2003 - 2007
Table 126 – Kievstar prepaid, postpaid & blended monthly ARPU – 2004 - 2007
Table 127 – Kievstar prepaid subscribers and MOU – 2004 - 2007
Table 128 – URS monthly ARPU, MOU and churn – 2005 - 2007
Table 129 – URS financial data – 2006 - 2007
Table 130 – Prepaid users by mobile network operator – 2004 - 2007
Table 131 – Top 10 mobile content providers – January - March 2007