Original telecommunications market research and telecommunications sector trend analysis for the national telecommunications industry.

Competitive intelligence, regional telecommunications company rankings and SWOT analyses on international and domestic telecommunications companies.

The Report provides industry professionals and researchers, operators, equipment suppliers and vendors, corporate and financial services analysts and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on the national telecommunications industry.

" The Asia Telecommunications Report is used for benchmarking industry views against BMI's independent forecasts; for market research and analysis of industry trends. It also provides competitive intelligence on leading companies. "
Chi-Wen Tsai, Managing Director, ROHDE & SCHWARZ Taiwan Ltd

Key Benefits of Report

-Benchmark BMI's Independent 5-Year Telecommunications Industry Forecast to test other views - a key input for successful budgeting and strategic business planning in the national telecommunications market.
-Target Business Opportunities & Risks in the Telecommunications Sector through our reviews of latest industry trends, regulatory changes, and major deals, projects and investments.
-Exploit Latest Competitive Telecommunications Intelligence & company SWOTS on your competitors and peers through company rankings by sales, market share, investments and leading products and services.

Executive Summary
Summary of BMI's key industry forecasts and trend analysis, covering ICT, fixed-line, mobile and internet markets, and headline news of key industry events from the latest quarter.

Market Overview
At-a-glance outlook of the structure, size and value of the industry, including an overview of key players and a snapshot of regional penetration rates for fixed-line, mobile and internet markets.

Business Environment Rankings
BMI provides a cross-border analysis of telecoms regulatory systems across regional markets, and their investor prospects, discussing the merits and downfalls of each country's business environment, and ranking them in order of competitiveness. The rankings take into account industry factors, such as Market Maturity, Growth Potential, Competitive Environment and Licensing Framework in addition to BMI's political and economic risk ratings.

BMI 5-Year Industry Forecast
Historic data series and 5-year forecasts to end-2012 for all key industry indicators (see list below), supported by explicit assumptions, plus analysis of key downside risks to the main forecast.

Fixed-Line Telephony - Telephone Lines ('000); Telephone Lines/100 Inhabitants;
Cellular Telephony - Phone Subscribers ('000); Mobile Phone Subscribers/ 100 Inhabitants; Mobile Phone Subscribers/100 Fixed Line Subscribers;
Internet Markets - Internet Users ('000); Internet Users/100 Inhabitants; Broadband Internet Subscribers ('000); Broadband Internet Subscribers/100 Inhabitants;
Multimedia Markets - PCs ('000); PCs/100 Inhabitants; TV households ('000s); Pay-TV subscribers ('000s); Pay-TV subscribers/100 inhabitants; Cable TV subscribers ('000s); Direct-to-Home Subscribers ('000s)
BMI 5-Year Macroeconomic Forecast
BMI forecasts for all headline macroeconomic indicators, including real GDP growth, inflation, fiscal balance, trade balance, current account and external debt.

Competitive Landscape & Rankings
Commentary on key operators highlighting ownership structures, latest available revenue figures, market share analysis and ARPU counts.

Company Profiles & SWOTS
Company profiles, including SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analyses, fully researched senior executives and contact details, business activity, leading products and services, and a record of all recent foreign direct investments and projects.

The Sector At A Glance

Key Insights On The Telecomunications sector of Russia

The Russian government has followed up on its December 2006 announcement that 3G licensing was imminent, issuing tender documentation to five potential licensees. 3G candidates have until February 26 to submit their bids, and the government has said that it expects the results of the tender to be announced on 20 April 2007. Although this timetable makes it unlikely that 3G services will be available on any large scale before summer 2007, it is feasible that commercial services will be available in Moscow and St Petersburg before the end of the year. Based on the anticipated launch of 3G services in 2007, we have predicted a total user base of just over 1mn by the end of the year. We have retained our forecast of steady but slow 3G growth over the next five years, and predict that, by 2011, 13% of mobile subscribers could be using 3G services.

It should be noted that our current 3G forecast depends, to some extent, on how many licences are awarded and to whom. The country's three largest mobile operators, MTS, VimpelCom and MegaFon, are all understood to have received the necessary tender documents, as has St Petersburg-based telecoms company, Summa Telecom. A fifth company to receive the tender documents is actually a consortium of operators, which includes Sweden's Tele2 and regional mobile operator SMARTS. Some of these companies may have more of an advantage than others when it comes to the commercial deployment and development of 3G services. For example, the three leading mobile operators already offer EDGE (2.75G services) and have tested 3G technology in preparation for licensing. Furthermore, BMI believes that the licence winners, whoever they turn out to be, will be cautious about investing in new infrastructure until they are confident of consumer demand. We expect that 3G services will initially be restricted to Moscow, St Petersburg and a few other large cities, with EDGE services covering the rest of the country.

Russia has seen its position in BMI's Business Environment Rankings table rise two places to 11th position. Although the country's market maturity score continues to slowly edge upwards, it lags behind many of its regional peers in terms of the availability and penetration of telecoms services. Russia's broadband market remains highly undeveloped, and there is a notable lack of internet access and fixed line telephony in many smaller Russian settlements and rural communities. Furthermore, there are considerable differences between mobile penetration in the major cities and in more provincial parts of the country. Russia's growth potential score remains high, with significant opportunities for both fixedline and mobile operators. Despite the opportunities for growth, Russia continues to occupy a low position on our table, and this is primarily due to its low scores for political and economic risk, and for its weak licensing and regulatory environment. Russia is a notably difficult environment for foreign investors, with high levels of government intervention in the economy and strong concerns about political and economic corruption. In the country's telecoms industry, licensing decisions have been slow, as have the preparations to privatise the Svyazinvest group of fixed line operators. BMI also continues to be concerned by the lack of an independent regulator.