PRESS: Deloitte says 7% Russian cell clients change operators in H1

MOSCOW, Dec 20 (PRIME) -- About 7% of Russian mobile subscribers changed their operators in January–June as compared to 4–5% of users who switched to other operators within six months in several previous years, business daily Vedomosti reported Tuesday, citing a Deloitte research.

Deloitte polled 2,000 respondents across the country at the age of 18–60 years. The indicator included the mobile number portability (MNP) and purchases of SIM cards.

The researcher’s partner Anton Shulga explained the high dynamics by the entrance of T2 RTK Holding, known as Tele2, on the Moscow market and its aggressive promotion in regions. The rise in switching to other operators could continue, he said.

T2 RTK Holding’s spokesman Konstantin Prokshin agreed that the operator’s appearance in Moscow could provoke a flow of subscribers.

The number of subscribers sticking to the one and the same operator remained almost unchanged: it was 39% of respondents in 2016, 38% in 2015 and 39% in 2014.

Spokespeople for mobile operators MTS and VimpelCom, known as Beeline, said sampling of 2,000 people is not enough to judge since the country’s three leading operators, the two mentioned and MegaFon, have over 200 million subscribers in total.

Researcher TMT Consulting’s Konstantin Ankilov said an annual outflow from all mobile operators is at some 100 million SIM cards, and an addition of 2 percentage points could be considered as insignificant.

Kirill Kucherov of researcher J’son & Partners found the Deloitte sampling representative, but said T2 RTK Holding is not the main driver. Subscribers are not satisfied with the quality of services and look for alternatives, he said.

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