MTS and Megafon are deploying commercial 3G coverage in Moscow

http://twitpic.com/uzbw4 — SpeedTest using MTS 3G on MKAD.

http://twitpic.com/twuy5 — Megafon 3G at Starlite Diner Oktyabrskaya.

See also: MTS plans service test to be completed before August 1, 2009.

Number of mobile subscribers in Russia, and by country

MorganStanley's report says Russia is the 4th country in the world by number of mobile subscribers.

No love from Gmail SMS service for Russia

Google has added SMS quotas in Gmail Chat. Help topic on the matter says:

Messages sent or received to/from phones in North America don't have a quota.

So I assume it’s now possible to send and receive message outside US.

There are three big mobile phone operators in Russia: MTS, BeeLine and Megafone. Gmail failed to deliver SMS to MTS, neither Megafone.