The GSM Association has noted in the research “Mobile economy: Russia and the CIS 2018” that only 60% of the population of Uzbekistan is covered by mobile communications.

Also, it has been mentioned by the GSMA (unites more than 750 operators across the world and more than 350 companies in the mobile ecosystem, including phone manufacturers) research that Russia can become one of the world leaders in the transition to 5G, the new standard communications.

According to the association’s forecast, by 2025, a new generation of communications will cover 80% of the Russian population, while neighbors in the CIS will continue to develop the previous 4G standard by that time. Mobile operators believe that the speed of 5G deployment will depend on the conditions of auctions for frequencies and the emergence of commercial demand.

The GSMA assumes that Russia can become a leader not only in the CIS region, but also in the world by the speed of transition to 5G. The association embraces only 12 countries in the CIS region.

As per the GSMA prediction, Russian mobile operators are going to launch commercial 5G networks in 2020, but for Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Uzbekistan, a new generation of communications will be available only by 2025.

At the same time, the association notes that the CIS is one of the highest levels of mobile penetration in the world after Europe and North America. This will limit the growth of the subscriber base in the region in the next few years: by 2025, the penetration of communication services will increase from 80% to just 82%, with the majority of new subscribers appearing in Uzbekistan, where now only 60% of the population is covered by mobile communications.

Simultaneously, the growth potential in the region remains with 4G technology. As of the end of 2017, only 16% of active subscribers in the CIS used it, most of them in Russia.

In total, in 2017, there were 422 million active SIM cards in the CIS, excluding the Internet subscriptions. It is expected that by 2025, more than two thirds of all regional connections will fall under the share of 4G, while the share of 5G will be only 12%. Thus, the total number of active SIM cards will reach to 437 million.