Hard competition on Russian Far East

There was a land part on Russian Far East where Beeline wasn't operating. Vimpelcom (Beeline brand owner) gained 3G license on that area (Primorskij region with capital in Vladivostok). 3G network is almost built there. Before Beeline there was 4 MNOs: NTC (local MNO - current leader - owned by Korea Telecom), MTS, Megafon and SvyazInvest daughter - Akos (which Beeline tried to buy many times).
NTC is the leader because of made in Vladivostok (local provider) - they have about 1.2 mln subscribers. And now competition is becoming hard one. One of the main differentiations is the Mobile Internet speed. Beeline owning 3G license after building wide spread network will be the most effective in this field and MNOs are trying to decrease this negative influence. As example NTC is considering Mobile Internet acceleration tools.
I'm sure that Mobile Acceleration is eally important solution in operator's network. Average web site volume is continiously increasing while speeds are still the same (except new 3G technology), radio channels problems with delays are still the same. Using smartphones for web access is really hard because of up to 5 minutes upload time. Subscribers don't need these high level details in pictures. Mobile Internet often used for news serfing, mail access, chats etc. It is significant to increase upload rate 2 or may be even 3 times by cutting images quality and additional optimizations. Many of my colleagues decided that accelerated Mobile Internet is much more attractive and they are ready to pay additional fee for acceleration. Moreover after switching off Mobile Acceleration they are not willing to use it in many cases. As example to check mail on mail.ru with Mobile Acceleration is attractive from smartphone but without it they would better wait until getting home.
Additional reason to implement such service is a clear trend to flat tariffs - MNOs are becoming Mobile ISPs and trying to compete with fixed broadband ISPs. Compression of Internet traffic inreases network volume (decreases radion expenditures) and maximum performance and in same time inreasing Subscriber Experience.
Most of European MNOs already implemented such solutions. It could be very effective step against 3G expansion. But unfortunatelly there is strong term of switching to "Great Three MNOs" - their brands are strong and aggressive advertising is much more powerfull than local players could afford. Of course crisis will give some time for local players concentrated on better offerings especially in case of cheap services.
Another local player BWC in Siberia launched Internet Acclereation from Venturi Wireless (http://bwc.ru/gsm/internet/venturi/) I think because of the same reasons. As I know such activities performed Megafon which decided to have Venturi Wireless (with local St Petersburg Olenkom partner) solution for its Mobile Internet acceleration - soon we should see first results. Another vendor Byte Mobile teamed with Reksoft - Russian outsourcing software developer - to get on russian market with their solution.
I think this solution soon will be in every MNO infrastructure. Let's wait for Beeline and MTS steps in this direction. I'll be glad to know your opinion about Mobile Internet acceleration usability.

Thanks,
Denis.