Svyaznoy, a mobile phone chain, has set up 98 outlets in the Urals, of which 22 have been set up in Yekaterinburg, by April 1, 2006. GSM sales records in the Urals grew 3.6 times bigger than a year earlier; the corresponding figure for Yekaterinburg is twice that of last year. ‘The increase in sales is largely due to the chain intensive regional development (we only had outlets in 7 Russian cities in 2005, now we’re present in 18 cities) plus the active marketing strategies,’ the company’s spokesperson says.

It has been reported that SonyEricsson K300i, SonyEricsson K750i, Siemens A70, Siemens C75, Nokia 1100, Nokia 2600, Samsung X480 enjoy the greatest demand.