MTS, a leading Russian mobile operator named one of the ten most valuable global telecom brands this past spring, announced last week that it will invest as much as much as $200 million for an expansion of its networks in neighboring Ukraine and in Turkmenistan, a former Soviet Union state located in Central Asia.
Apparently undeterred by its September 2012 fiasco in Uzbekistan, another Central Asian country, the mobile operator aims to upgrade its Turkmen assets and to install new 3G telecom capacities in the country. It has contracted Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) to provide equipment and build networks.
NSN will supply about 6,000 new base stations, gateway equipment, and other items and give a major face-lift to MTS’s existing monitoring and power infrastructure in the two countries. In addition to engineering and building the 3G network in Ashgabat (Ashkhabad), Turkmenistan’s capital, and in some other large cities, the Finnish contractor is also expected to ensure seamless integration of all network components and software.
NSN and MTS are deploying Flexi Multiradio base stations to implement the Single RAN concept for the second and third generations of mobile networks and are also gearing up for future introduction of more advanced LTE systems in the two countries, MTS said.
As of June 30, 2013, MTS had almost 22 million subscribers in Ukraine and a still modest 1.88 million clients in Turkmenistan.
