Russia cellphone penetration 151.5 pct in January

* Mobile subscriptions rise to 220 mln

* Compared with 219.2 mln in Dec 2010

* Vimpelcom adds 0.5 mln subscribers, but still No.3

MOSCOW, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Russian mobile phone
subscriptions rose to 220 million in January, equal to 151.5
percent of Russia's population and up from 219.2 million in
December, market research group AC&M said on Monday.

The total number of mobile phone users increased 0.8 million
from December and was up 11.7 million year-on-year.

Vimpelcom (VIP.N), which has been losing Russian market
share to MegaFon since last April, added nearly 520,000
subscribers last month, while MegaFon, part-owned by Nordic
group TeliaSonera (TLSN.ST), saw outflow of around 140,000.

However, MegaFon retained the number two spot on the Russian
market with 56.5 million subscribers. Vimpelcom had 52.5 million
Russian mobile users as of Jan. 31.

In Ukraine, the number of valid SIM cards in January was
53.7 million, equal to 117.3 percent of the population and down
from 54.1 million, or 118.1 percent, a month earlier.

AC&M provided the following data (millions of subscribers,
including those in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan):

Jan 31 Dec 31

Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) (MBT.N) 108.34 108.07

Vimpelcom (VIP.N) (TEL.OL) 92.67 92.02

MegaFon (TLSN.ST) 57.07 57.20

Tele2 (TEL2b.ST) 18.94 18.77

Uralsvyazinform URSI.MM 4.74 4.62

Sibirtelecom STKM.MM 3.67 3.67

NCC (former Nizhny Novgorod Cellular) 3.65 3.60

SMARTS Group 2.50 2.50

Cellular Communications MOTIV 2.08 2.07

New Telephone Company (030200.KS) 1.52 1.51

Russian market share breakdown by percentage as of Jan. 31:

MTS MegaFon Vimpelcom Others

Russia 32.5 25.7 23.9 17.9

Moscow 39.2 23.6 35.3 1.9

St Petersburg 30.8 32.9 18.7 17.6

Regions 31.3 25.5 22.0 21.2

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by David Cowell)