DUSHANBE, December 11, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Russian company, ComNews Research, expects the number of cellular phone subscribers in Tajikistan with population of 7 million to have reached 3.2 million by the end of this year.  

According to ComNews Research, the global financial crisis has slowed down pace of growth in receipts of cellular companies in the Russian Federation and other CIS states.  

Survey conducted by ComNews Research has shown that the most rapid paces of development of cellular companies have been reported in the Central Asian states.  However, the lowest level of mobile communications penetration has also been reported in those countries.  

In Russia, the number of cellular phone subscribers is expected to have reached 186.3 million by the end of December.  It is followed by Ukraine, where the number of cellular phone subscribers will have increased from 55.5 million to 56.1 million by the end of this month.   

Kazakhstan, which is expected to have 14.5 million cellular phone subscribers by the end of this year, will be third place among the CIS states in the number of cellular phone subscribers.