Internet provider Scartel gets 2.5-2.7 gigahertz frequencies back
MOSCOW. May 24 (Interfax) - Broadband provider Scartel, which operates under the Yota trademark, has again received permission to use frequencies in the 2.5-2.7 gigahertz range that had been withdrawn by national communications regulator Roskomnadzor, the service's spokesman, Mikhail Vorobyev, told Interfax.
The ninth arbitration appeals court in April approved an amicable agreement in Scartel LLC's suit against Russia's national regulator for the communications sector Roskomnadzor for withdrawing permission to use frequencies in the 2.5-2.7 gigahertz range.
Scartel put its WiMAX network into commercial use in Moscow and St. Petersburg in July of 2009, later that fall in Ufa, and last spring in Krasnodar and Sochi (frequencies in these cities are not the subject of the dispute with Roskomnadzor). Last year ended with 757,000 network users overall, of whom 63% were in Moscow.
The company's investments in Russia by the end of last year had reached $167.8 million, of which $142.6 million went into building and installation work and purchasing base-station equipment.