Scartel, the leading Russian WiMAX operator, working under the Yota brand, will switch to an LTE network in Moscow as early as April 15, CEO Denis Sverdlov told journalists last week. Investment in the project will total $60 million. The new network will make mobile Internet access cheaper and faster than WiMAX, Sverdlov emphasized, as …
MTS, a major Russian mobile operator, and Rostelecom, the national telecom operator, have agreed to share part of their network infrastructure, including towers (antenna masts) and optical fiber cables, reported Russian business daily Vedomosti. Rostelecom has the largest network infrastructure in Russia, extending about 500,000 km, or 310,685 miles, covering even remote and underdeveloped territories …
MTS and Rostelecom to share network infrastructure Read More
Transtelecom, or TTK, has purchased 100% of the shares of Electro-Com, an Internet provider working under the Spark brand, Telecom Daily reported earlier this week. The deal will reinforce TTK’s positions in the broadband Internet access markets of Rostov-on-Don, Ryazan, Taganrog, Volgodonsk, and Kaluga. It will also introduce TTK to the Tula, Krasnodar, Bryansk and …
Transtelecom acquires regional Internet provider Electro-Com Read More
Scartel, the Russian WiMAX provider operating under the Yota brand, plans to offer voice services in the near future as a logical consequence of its switch to LTE. The company has just obtained a license for such services and another one to operate as an MVNO. Scartel is in discussions with Megafon, a major mobile operator, …
Tele2 Russia, a subsidiary of the Swedish-based European telecom group, announced 21% annual growth of its operating revenue over the course of 2011, to 51.9 billion roubles, or approximately $1.7 billion. The company’s EBITDA reached 20.3 billion roubles, or $676 million, up 36% from the previous year. In March, the company raised $1.06 billion in …
Tele2 Russia’s revenue reached $1.7 billion in 2011 Read More
Fiber-optic telecommunication provider Transtelecom (TTK) is preparing to launch cable TV services next spring in several Russian regions. “We don’t focus on one technology exclusively,” news agency RIA Novosti quoted TTK President Artem Kudryavtsev as saying. “Depending on the local situation in each region, we may use analog cable TV as well as the digital …
Russia’s national telecom operator Rostelecom yesterday announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Teleset Networks, has invested 682 million rubles ($22.5 million) to take a 75% minus one share stake in GNC-ALFA, the largest independent Internet and data provider in Armenia. “This is the first acquisition outside of Russia that we have concluded as part of our …
Rostelecom acquires majority stake in Armenian Internet and data provider GNC-ALFA Read More
Eurosport has extended its partnership with MTS, a leading Russian mobile operator, thereby providing the latter’s mobile TV subscribers with access to Eurosport and Eurosport 2. In a statement, MTS says it has one of the most developed 3G networks in Russia, covering around 80% of the population and that the number of users of …
Interest in content delivery networks (CDNs) is growing amongst leading mobile operators in Russia. According to Russian publications AKTR and ComNews.ru, VimpelCom is currently looking for an equipment supplier for a CDN and expects to finalise a tender in the first half of this year. MTS is meanwhile using one operated by the company NGENIX but …
Russia’s mobile operators gear up for OTT services Read More
After years of strategic discussions, long bureaucratic processes, and unsuccessful attempts to launch 4G, 2012 promises to be the breakthough year for LTE deployment in key areas of Russian territory. While three players – Scartel, Rostelecom and Osnova Telecom – had received their own frequencies for LTE deployment by the end of 2011, additional frequencies …
2012 expected to be Russia’s breakthrough year for LTE Read More
Russia’s three leading mobile operators, Megafon, MTS and Vimpelcom, announced last week they will provide their subscribers with full common access to their respective mobile payment systems. Over the last two years, Russian mobile operators have developed and diversified their mobile payment systems far beyond traditional premium SMS. The ‘Easy Payment’ of MTS, ‘Mobile Payment’ and …
Russia’s “Big Three” mobile operators join forces to develop m-commerce Read More
The Russian Antimonopoly Service allowed Rostelecom, the national telecom operator, to acquire 100% of the shares of Enter, a provider of fixed broadband Internet access in Siberia owned by the Dutch company Consumer Enter B. V. Established in 2005, Enter serves 22,000 customers in Barnaul, Novokuznetsk and Tyumen, three major Siberian cities.
