For the third year running Moscow has topped the list of the most expensive cities worldwide. Tokyo took second place with London dropping to third position.

The famous list is drawn up each year by the human resources firm Mercer as a guide for expatriate expenses. It attempts to measure usual expenses for over 200 items such as housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. The report singled out Moscow for having particularly expensive coffee, with a cup in a cafe costing $10.40.

“Moscow’s position as the most expensive place for expatriate living has been strengthened by the appreciation of the rouble against the US dollar and the continuous rising accommodation costs,” said Yvonne Traber, a research manager at Mercer.

Click here for more information on the Mercer Cost of Living Report

Technorati Tags: Expat, Expatriate, Living Costs, Mercer, Moscow

The Casino Affiliate Convention (CAC) is one of the largest industry events on internet wagering marketing and advertising, and also covers both internet and traditional marketing. They have invited me back to their next conference in Moscow this week to speak on the topic of Social Media in Russia.

I really enjoyed the Amsterdam Conference in 2006 so it should be good to meet up with some familiar faces this Saturday. If you want to find out more, visit the CAC2008 website.

Other speakers include Rambler, Demfire Shakurova (SEONews) and Josh Gray (PerfSpot). Full agenda for the conference can be found here.

Technorati Tags: CAC, CAC2008, Casino, Conferences, Gaming, Moscow

Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Russia’s largest mobile-phone company, have announced their plans to introduce 3G telephone services in several key cities. Faster wireless services will give users quicker downloads and new capabilities, such as mobile television.

Earlier this month MTS announced their plans to launch 3G in Moscow by 2009 but they have now added 4 more cities. The service has started in St. Petersburg, giving it the honor of becoming the first 3G enabled city in Russia but MTS have announced “technical readiness” to launch in Sochi, Kazan and Yekaterinburg. The network will be extended to more than 10 cities this year and to 40 cities by the end of 2009.

The company said it planned to spend 38 billion rubles ($1.61 billion) over the next three years on 3G development.

“With the launch of 3G networks in major regions of Russia, MTS is starting a new phase in the development of telecommunications” in the CIS, Mikhail Shamolin, chief executive of MTS Russia, said in the statement. The new network provides a download speed of 3.6 megabits per second, 10 times faster than 2G EDGE technology, the company said.

The company plans to spend 38 billion rubles through 2011 in Russia and forecasts it will have 11 million subscribers for 3G services by 2011. The services may add $2.5 billion to its revenue from 2008 to 2011, according to company data.

Russia has a particularly high mobile penetration rate. Although some reports put this figure at over 100%, more realistic analysts point to the facts that many people have multiple SIM cards and operators are slow to remove prepaid accounts from their books, one of the most common forms of account in Russia.

** Untitled by Andrew, one of the artists who make their work under a Creative Commons license at Flickr – thank you!

Technorati Tags: 3G, Kazan, Mikhail Shamolin, Mobiles, Moscow, MTS, Russia, Sochi, St. Petersburg, Telephones, Yekaterinburg