Russian Digital Development Ministry considering alternative energy sources for connecting base stations on federal highways
MOSCOW. Oct 6 (Interfax) - The Digital Development Ministry is working on the possibility of using alternative energy sources to power base stations on sections of federal highways where it is not possible to connect to electricity in the traditional way, Deputy Digital Development Minister Dmitry Ugnivenko said.
"We are working on issues of alternative energy sources - both solar and wind power. If this proves viable, then alternative energy sources will allow these points [sections of highways] to be returned to the program [for LTE network coverage]," Ugnivenko said on Friday at the Telecom: Reload conference organized by the ComNews publication.
In 2021, the State Commission for Radio Frequencies extended LTE licenses for cellular operators with a number of conditions, one of which is the coverage of federal highways with networks. According to a decision of the state commission from December 2023, 70% of the length of federal highways must be covered by LTE networks by 2025 and 99.9% by September 8, 2031.
At the next meeting, the state commission intends to identify sections of highways that are not subject to the LTE network coverage requirement, the media previously reported. This concerns those sections of highways where operators do not have the ability to connect their equipment to the power grid.
"There are indeed problems with the power supply. I want to draw attention [to this] - 99% of the points where it is impossible to cover a federal highway with high-speed mobile internet is due to the lack of electricity," Ugnivenko said.
Operators are conducting surveys of federal highways to determine places where base stations need to be installed, but it often turns out that there are no electrical substations nearby.
"If it is several kilometers, tens of kilometers to the nearest energy infrastructure, an operator cannot invest tens or hundreds of millions of rubles to connect one base station to electricity. It is the region's task to provide the infrastructure with electricity," Ugnivenko said.
A number of regions are finding a way out of such a situation, including by subsidizing operators for connecting to the electricity network. The exclusion of highway sections from the LTE network coverage program will occur "only with the signature of the head of a Russian region," he said.
"At the moment, we are collecting letters from the regions confirming that they have worked through each point with the operator. If a region says, I have considered the possibility, I cannot subsidize, I have no way to make this happen, I cannot solve the issue of connecting to electricity in any way and I confirm this with the signature of the head of the region, then we understand that we are postponing this issue. Since this is a burden on the operators, and not by their own will, but due to absolutely objective circumstances and detailed study they cannot do this, by a decision of the State Commission for Radio Frequencies, we remove this point," Ugnivenko said.
Subsequently, such sections of highways will be returned to the LTE network coverage program as soon as the possibility of connecting base stations to electricity appears.
"I demand from our colleagues, the operators, that they work through all options: these are gas holders, and diesel generation, and wind turbines, and solar panels, and the overall configuration of all these options," he said.
