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MOSCOW (Reuters) - A record number of Muscovites signed up for mobile phone services in July, contrary to worries that operators are running out of room to grow in Russia's wealthiest city, a senior industry executive said on Monday.

"Last month, in July, we had record sales in the Moscow region," said Nikolai Pryanishnikov, first vice president of Moscow's largest wireless network operator, Vimpelcom.

"People talk about saturation and slowing growth (in Moscow)," he told reporters. "We found 400,000 people who didn't agree, who have enough financial resources to sign up."

Moscow is the country's biggest, richest mobile market and the main cash generator for the top two operators, Moscow-based Mobile TeleSystems and Vimpelcom.

They are investing heavily to expand in the provinces, which are less lucrative for the operators but currently their best source of new subscriber growth.

Pryanishnikov said the 400,000 were gross additions and did not reflect those who stopped using Vimpelcom's services in July.

Also on Monday, telecoms consultancy AC&M reported a five percent increase from June for the city's top three operators, the second biggest one-month influx of new clients in the capital ever.

"July was another month of extremely high subscriber growth in the Moscow license area (MLA) despite the summer holiday season. Put together, MTS, Vimpelcom and MegaFon enlisted over 430,000 new users -- a record high subscriber increase for MLA ever, if you take out December 2002 sales when about 445,000 were added," AC&M analyst Anton Pogrebinsky said.

Third biggest operator MegaFon's power base is in St Petersburg. It was the last to launch its network and struggles against entrenched competitors with populist offers such as free incoming calls.

Vimpelcom, which has the largest subscriber base in Moscow, led its rivals for a second month in a row, gaining 50 percent of all new clients in Moscow during the month, AC&M said.

MTS, which launched its first major mass-market campaign, led Vimpelcom for most of the year.

"We are not seeing signs of saturation. We are getting into new segments of the market. There are a lot of young people, and those younger than 16 are signing up -- that's an interesting new trend," said MTS Director Of Public And Investor Relations, Andrei Braginsky.

Mobile phones were an exclusive attribute of the new Russian rich only four years ago.

"We also see a lot of new users from the region surrounding Moscow," Braginsky added.

About 56 percent of the 17 million people in the Moscow license area use mobile phones, up from 53.4 percent in June. Pryanishnikov said Vimpelcom alone had more subscribers than the fixed line operator MGTS.

Analysts have been increasing their targets to as much as 100 percent for Moscow as growth in the capital outstrips expectations.

"We believe (mobile phones) are affordable for almost every Muscovite," Pryanishnikov said

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