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Two million mobile phone subscriptions were signed in Russia last month, with the country's third-largest operator OAO MegaFon winning almost half of the that total, consultants Advanced Communications & Media said Wednesday.

As many as one in three Russians have more than one SIM card - 199.9 million were in use at the end of July - and analysts had feared that users might discard these supplementary SIM cards as their incomes fell during the recession. That hasn't happened across the market as a whole, but individual operators in particular regions have suffered.

Megafon's larger rivals, OAO Mobile TeleSystems (MBT) and OAO Vimpel Communications (VIP), added 511,000 and 599,000 subscribers respectively in July.

However, MTS gains came from outside Moscow. In the Russian capital, the total number of mobile users shrank since MTS shed 504,000 users, far more than the number of Muscovites who signed on with VimpelCom or MegaFon.

Aside from Russia's three nationwide operators, a number of smaller companies also operate networks covering smaller regions. On aggregate these smaller operators - which tend to cater for the poorest section of the market - lost subscribers during July.

MTS and VimpelCom are listed in New York, MegaFon, is 44%-owned by Sweden's TeliaSonera (TELSN.SK) and the rest of the company is split between metals tycoon Alisher Usmanov and conglomerate Alfa Group.

AC&M Web site: www.acm-consulting.com

-By Will Bland, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 495 937 8445; william.bland@dowjones.com