Russia' telecom, postal sales up 15.6%

Russia’s telecommunications and postal industry took in 285.5 billion rubles in sales in 2002, up 15.6% on the year, the State Statistics Committee reported Monday.

Sales to households rose 19% on the year to 131.2 billion rubles, while sales to companies were up 13.2% on the year to 154.3 billion rubles in 2002.

Traditional operators and the government courier service posted sales of 127.7 billion rubles in 2002, including 64.8 billion rubles in sales to households. No comparative figures for these services were provided.

New telecom operators provided 55.3% of total telecom services in 2002 and 50.9% of services to residential customers for the same period. No comparative figures for these services were provided.

In December 2002, the industry’s sales increased 10.4% on the year and 7.2% on the month to 29.7 billion rubles, including 15.4 billion rubles to companies and 14.3 billion rubles to residential customers.

In December 2002, telecommunications and postal tariffs for companies rose 3% in average.