UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 10, 2017. The number of gadgets that will be paid for in installments doubled at the telecommunications provider MegaFon’s outlets, MegaFon Ural’s press service reports. Samsung is currently their best-selling mobile phone brand, with sales up by 68% in one month. Every one in five smartphones a customer bought from MegaFon is a Samsung. ‘One has to keep up with the times, so a gadget that ensures speedy Internet connection is a must-have these days. Based on our popularity rating, the top-selling devices are the ones that support the 4G network. They usually come

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 10, 2017. It took a Sverdlovsk Region-based unemployed person 7.1 months on average to find a new job in the first quarter of 2017, Sverdlovskstat reports. 45.7% of the local unemployed remain out of jobs between one and six months, 28.9% stay unemployed for over a year. This is five times more than in the first quarter of 2016, when only 5.6% of those on the lookout for a place couldn’t find one for over twelve months. 36,000 people applied to the state-run employment agencies in the area in January-March 2017, including 33,600 jobless applicants. This is 2.6% more

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 10, 2017. The demand for trips to Turkey rose by fifteen times this May compared with May 2016, with the share of Turkey-related search engine entries up from 1.5% last May to 21.3% this month, tutu.ru’s press service reports. An all-inclusive, week-long stay package currently costs 23,500 RUR per person. At the same time, increasingly fewer people are interested in traveling around Russia: the share of search engine entries related to national health and seaside resorts dropped from 24.4% last year down to 12.7% this year. An all-inclusive package costs 9,500 RUR per

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 5, 2017. EVRAZ Holding is currently getting the primary technological equipment at its Zapadno-Sibirskaya Power Station repaired, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Relations Center reports. The station went through the heating season of 2016/2017 in its usual mode and provided the necessary heating and hot water to end users in full. The provided temperature range was coordinated with the city council and was compiled with throughout the entire heating period. ‘In order to get ready for the upcoming heating season, we have to focus on repairing boilers and turbine

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 5, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) looked into its customers’ banking behavior to find out that over a third of them chose to deposit their money with the bank based on their friends’ advice in the first quarter of this year, the bank’s press service reports. 2,700 customers set up deposits with the UBRD as part of the Bring A Friend Program in the first quarter of 2017, which is twice the number registered one year earlier. According to UBRD Debit Transactions Director Olga Aksenova, the offer resulted in nearly 8,000 new customers who

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 5, 2017. Ural Airlines are now selling reduced-price tickets for Crimea bound flights; this is part of the government-subsidized flight program, the air carrier’s press service reports. The offer is available to Russian nationals under 23, female nationals over 55 and male nationals over 60, people with disabilities (Group 1) and people accompanying them on the flight, people accompanying children with disabilities on their flight, and children with disabilities (Groups 2 and 3). Tickets can be booked at a booking office upon the production of the documents that prove

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 5, 2017. Rosset’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems is currently working to upgrade Svarochnaya, a 220-kilowatt substation in Sverdlovsk Region, the company press service reports. The upgrades are expected to result in more reliable power supply to end users in Verkhnyaya Pyshma and the north of Yekaterinburg, including a number of metallurgical enterprises. ‘The substation will get fitted with four new 110/220-kilowatt switch disconnectors and new hand-operated gear for primary and earthing blades of 110-kilowatt disconnectors. The obsolete equipment of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 5, 2017. MegaFon Ural introduced the new LTE Advanced telecommunications standard in Nizhniy Tagil, the company press service reports. The local users’ smartphones and tablets will now have access to the Internet connection that is twice as fast as before. Nizhniy Tagil’s base stations, like those in Yekaterinburg, are now tuned in for higher traffic capacity. With LTE-A, MegaFon’s subscribers will be able to enjoy a better connection quality even at maximum workload. ‘LTE Advanced has meant top data transfer speed now comes to 150 Mb/sec for smartphones, tablets, or

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 4, 2017. ChTPZ Group is taking part in Offshore Technology Conference 2017 (OTC) in Houston, USA. The company is presenting its White Metallurgy produce, high tech OCTGs, and oil-extracting equipment, the Group’s press service reports. The Group’s stand features their newest development in the field of production and transportation of natural gas and oil: pumping and compression pipes, casing pipes with Premium threaded joints made at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant, large-diameter pipes made at Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant’s Vysota 239 Department, and pipeline produce

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 4, 2017. The average asking price on Yekaterinburg existing home market declined by 0.6% in the last four weeks and came to 66,850 RUR per m2, Ural Real Estate Chamber’s analytical report states. This is nearly 13% less than in February 2015 and 1.8% less compared with the start of the year. Prices fell most noticeably in the city’s cheapest and remotest locations, with prices falling by 2.5%, down to 48,035 RUR per m2 in the last four weeks. Homes in the third and fourth priciest locations grew 0.7% less expensive (60,850 RUR and 56,135 RUR per m2, respectively).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 4, 2017. A minimum average set of grocery items one needs per month cost 4,082.3 RUR in Sverdlovsk Region in late March 2017. According to Sverdlovskstat, this is 3.1% more than at the start of the year. All in all, consumer prices rose by 1% in March 2017 against December 2016. Food items grew 1.4% more expensive, potatoes 33.1% more expensive, onions 22.6% more expensive, carrots 16.9% more expensive, and cabbage 7.6% more expensive. At the same time, sugar is now 11.1% cheaper, while millet and buckwheat are 9.6% and 7.4% cheaper, respectively.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 4, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region’s inflation rate stood at 4.1% in April 2017 (compared with one year earlier), Sverdlovskstat reports. Food items grew 3.4% more expensive in the course of one year, non-food items 4.9%, and alcohol and services grew 6.6% and 3.5% costlier, respectively. Compared with March 2017, inflation stood at 0.1% in April 2017.

UrBC, Moscow, May 4, 2017. Apple Corporation reports its iPhone sales declined by 43,000 units in the second quarter of the financial year 2016/2017, Prime refers to the company’s report as stating. The company sold 50.76m iPhones, compared with 51.19m one year previously. At the same time, their quarterly dividends went up by 10.5%, leaving investors unimpressed and the share price dropping by 1.9%, down to $144.65. The company’s profit rose by 4.9%, up to over $11bn, its revenues by 4.6%, up to $52.9bn. Apple managed to both increase their sales and reach the all-time high in terms of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 3, 2017. The telecommunications provider MegaFon’s technicians introduced 270 km of fiber optic along the electric main supports from Revda to Krasnoufimsk, MegaFon Ural’s press service reports. This means the Internet connection will be twice as fast for over 200,000 local smartphone and tablet computer users. Not only those based in Revda and Krasnoufimsk but also residents of Nizhniye Sergi, Mikhailovsk, Arty, Achit, and the smaller settlements in the area such as Bakryazh, Chatlyk, Krylovo, Kriulino, Atig, and Verkhniye Sergi can benefit from the improvements as

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 3, 2017. Mining teams headed by Sergey Saprykin and Alexander Asinsky both did 1km worth of stoping work at EVRAZ Holding’s Mezhegeyugol Mine in March 2017. So far, this has been the best result across the holding’s mining division, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Relations Center reports. ‘Mezhegeyugol miners set a high benchmark for the entire team of Raspadskaya Coal Company. Workers at Yerunakovskaya 8 Mine and Raspadskaya Mine, who are using the same techniques, are only planning on reaching the same output. I hope our miners at Mezhegeyugol will set a new

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 3, 2017. Ural Airlines’ Wings of Good Program won the national Best Social Program Award, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘The prize-giving ceremony took place in Moscow Region on April 28. Ural Airlines won a certificate and a prize in Charity category,’ the press service says. Wings of Good is a project coordinated jointly by the airline, the Konstantin Khabensky Fund, and RusFond. Passengers and members of the company’s Wings Club can donate their bonus points/miles to the charity funds. The money will be directed to cover air travel for ill children and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 3, 2017. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev asked the area’s Investment & Development Minister to personally supervise the promising production projects currently under way in Kachkanar and to help the town council in their applying for the status of a special economic zone/priority social and economic development area, the Governor’s Mid-Urals Information Policy Department reports. According to Governor Kuivashev, about a third of Sverdlovsk Region’s population get directly affected by problems of one-employer towns. In Kachkanar, production is

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 3, 2017. The number of people living in Yekaterinburg now comes to over 1.5m, the city council’s website states. ‘According to the data collected by Municipal Population Register, our automatic information system, there were 1,501,000 people living in the city as of May 1, 2017,’ the website states. A month earlier, the figure stood at 1,498,542, which means the city’s population rose by more than 2,450 people in just one month. The male/female ratio has remained the same as last year, with men and women comprising 44% and 56% of Yekaterinburg’s residents,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 2, 2017. Thumbelina will be performed on ice at Yekaterinburg’s Greenwich Mall on Friday, April 28. This is part of the annual Sale Night, Malyshev 73 Society’s press service reports. Professional ice-skaters are going to act out some fragments from Thumbelina. ‘To provide an interesting and unusual show for the event, we invited actors from Voskresenye Ice Theater to deliver a performance on the 20-m2 ice arena that visitors with children will enjoy watching,’ the press service says. The Sale Night’s program also covers a performance by Neizvestnye, a roller-skating

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 2, 2017. The number of tower cranes used at Yekaterinburg construction sites (excluding the frozen housing projects) came to 85 in the first quarter of the year, which is one crane more than in the last quarter of 2016 and five cranes less than one year previously, Ural Real Estate Chamber Analytical Department’s report states. 367,000 m2 worth of housing projects are frozen at the moment, which is almost three times as much as in the first quarter of 2016 (127,000 m2). The current new home market supply comes to around 17,000 apartments.