MegaFon launches LTE on Yota network in Krasnodar, Sochi
KRASNODAR. Aug 15 (Interfax) - OJSC MegaFon , one of Russia's big-three telecommunications companies, put into commercial availability 4G communications services on the Skartel network (operating under the tradename Yota) in Krasnodar and Sochi on Wednesday, the first deputy to the director of MegaFon's Caucasus branch, Vladimir Kokurin, said at a press conference in Krasnodar.
Kokurin said that the 4G network is compatible with existing 3G (UMTS) and 2G (GSM) networks across Russia. Owners of devices with 4G support who enter the new network's coverage zone will automatically be 'accepted' by MegaFon's 3G/2G networks while maintaining mobile Internet access.
This new network is based on LTE (long term evolution) technology and supports data-transfer at speeds up to 70 megabytes per second.
"We have now launched a fourth-generation network in two Krasnodar Territory cities - Krasnodar and Sochi. Before the current year is out, there will in these cities be integrated some seventy base stations. In general, this will be done to increase network volume and expand the territory covered," Kokurin said.
Furthermore, MegaFon plans next year to build a 4G network covering eighteen populated areas in Krasnodar Territory with underdeveloped broadband Internet access, he said.
"The new-generation network was test-launched at the end of April, in Sochi at the beginning of May. By the completion of the testing period of 4G network operation in Krasnodar and Sochi several tasks were concluded right away, subscribers were apprised of the advantage of the network, and as of August 10 we had more than 10,000 clients, and traffic grew ten-fold. Also, we have designed a convenient pricing plan for day and night mobile Internet usage," the commercial director of the Caucasus branch, Sergei Shipulin, said at the press conference.
The LTE network creation project is economically advantageous for MegaFon, Shipulin said. The company has already begun to offer LTE services in test-mode on its partner's network in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Samara, Ufa, and Vladivostok..
MegaFon may also start offering LTE services on the Yota net in Kazan, Khabarovsk, Irkutsk, and St. Petersburg before this year is out.
Skartel and MegaFon came under the control of a single holding last month. The main shareholders of MegaFon (Alisher Usmanov has 50.1%) and Skartel (Sergei Adonyev's Telconet Capital with 75% and Russian Technologies with 25%) pooled their assets in the Cyprus-based holding Garsdale. Usmanov has an 82% stake in Garsdale, Telconet Capital 13.5%, and Russian Technologies 4.5%.
