russia

Russian carrier MegaFon announced yesterday it has signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone 3G to Russia later this year. Currently, this is all we know. Service plan and contract details will be announced sometime later.

As expected, Research In Motion (RIM) has just entered the Russian mobile market.

The first handset to go for sale is the BlackBerry 8700, the one that previously blew the Chinese market. It has recently passed the FSB and will be available through Vimpelcom (better known as Beeline). Other most probable carrier to offer the handset in the near future is Mobile TeleSystems (MTC).

BlackBery has been finally launched in Russia, and will be available in Q1 2008 from MTS and Vimpelcom.

It has recently been approved by the FSB (former KGB) for a one year term. However, the process of approval was ongoing and took several years. FSB required RIM to provide the codes used to encrypt traffic and did not allow launching the BlackBerry in Russia until both sides have found a compromise.

Nokia today announced that the Russian mobile operator Megafon will offer a mobile email service based on the Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email solution. The hosted service, branded as MegaSync, will provide mobile email, advanced attachment handling, calendar, contacts and task synchronization to Megafon's customers.

Samsung Electronics has announced its new Samsung C170 phone soon to be available in the Russian market.

C170 is well designed and has a reasonable price. This cell phone is only 8,75mm thin and has a wide range of functions such as text messaging, internet access, dictaphone, built-in FM receiver, large phone book (500 contacts), etc.

Samsung C170 costs 3000 rubles ($115).