Scartel launched the first LTE network in Russia

2011-12-30



Scartel, a Russian telecom company operating under the Yota brand, switched on the first LTE network in the country using 4G technology on a trial mode in Novosibrisk, Russia's third-largest city. The launch of commercial service of LTE mobile internet is planned for 15 January 2012.
At the moment Scartel, in cooperation with Huawei as the hardware vendor, has installed 63 base stations covering only some parts of the city. The operator plans to increase their number to 150, necessary to cover all of Novosibirsk, by March 2012. Investments in the city’s LTE network will hit $10m (€7.7m) and Scartel needs tens thousand of subscribers to ensure their return.
By September 2012, the company wants to upgrade its WiMAX networks in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Ufa and Sochi to the LTE standard and to offer 700,000 of its WiMAX subscribers the option to change to LTE. The prices of unlimited mobile LTE internet will be comparable to existing prices in the WiMAX network, which range now between RUB 300 to 1,200 (€7.5-29.9) per month.
Scartel has a permit to use the 60 MHz band in the 2,500-2,700 MHz spectrum for the development of LTE networks over the entirety of Russia’s territory. The company recently concluded an agreement with Megafon and Rostelecom giving them the right to use the capacity of its LTE network and gained in return access to the backbone infrastructure and data centre capacities of these operators.