2023-03-19 23:16:36
The Russian Ministry of Digital Development has approved the installation of 400 cellular base stations in the DPR by March 1, 2024. This will have to be done by the Phoenix operator (GUP DPR ROS). A similar number of base stations will have to be built by other operators who want to start working in the region. Ruslan Lebedev, Deputy Minister of Communications of the DPR, told Vedomosti about this.
“There are plans to install additional base stations in the DPR, agreed by the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation and communicated to mobile operators,” Lebedev told Vedomosti. “Phoenix”, according to him, is fulfilling the plans at its own expense and all the necessary equipment has already been purchased. Lebedev did not specify equipment vendors. Now the company has completed the installation of more than 50 base stations, other operators are “carrying out design and survey work,” says the deputy minister.
A representative of the Ministry of Digital Transformation told Vedomosti that the operators themselves would purchase the base stations and no budget funding was planned. According to him, at the next meeting of the State Commission for Radio Frequencies (SCRF; deals with the distribution of frequency resources between telecom operators), applications for the allocation of frequencies from operators who are ready to work in new regions will be considered. “These operators will be able to build base stations themselves or attract other contractors,” the representative of the department specified.
Vedomosti sent inquiries to the Ministry of Communications of the LPR, as well as to the administrations of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. The representative of Roskomnadzor of Russia forwarded the question to the Ministry of Digital Development.
The existing operators will continue to work in the new regions: Mirtelecom and K-telecom in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, Mobile Communications Systems (ISS) in the LPR and Phoenix in the DPR. This follows from the results of the SCRF meeting held in December 2022. The results were published in the official Telegram channel of the Ministry of Digital Development.
In addition, the Crimean operator Miranda-Media, which is almost 20% owned by Rostelecom, is preparing the infrastructure to start working in the DPR. A representative of the Ministry of Digital Development told Vedomosti in February 2023 that the operator should start working in the region by May 1. In the future, according to the ministry, the company may become a single mobile operator for new Russian regions.
Also at the meeting of the State Committee for Radio Frequencies, it was decided that in 2023 Roskomnadzor would assess the signal level in the territories and draw up a plan for installing base stations in places where communication does not catch.
A Vedomosti source close to the DPR government knows that plans for the construction of base stations have been developed for other new regions, and the total amount of construction funding is tentatively estimated at 22 billion rubles. According to him, this is “an assessment of the needs of the core of the network and new base stations.”
The specified amount will be enough for about 1200 stations, a Vedomosti source close to one of the operators calculated. According to him, this equipment will be enough for the development of the network in the event that we are talking about improving the existing coverage, and not about completely replacing the current equipment and installing new equipment in four subjects of the Federation at once.
According to Alexander Sivolobov, Deputy Head of the Skoltech-based NTI Competence Center for Wireless Communications and the Internet of Things, telecommunications networks in new regions, on the contrary, will have to be created from scratch, which entails a large amount of preparatory work. Taking into account the situation in the regions, at least 2,000 base stations will most likely be installed by 2026, the expert estimated. He also added that “22 billion rubles. These are very large investments, comparable to the investments of a federal cellular operator in the Moscow region over several years.”
Up to 18 million rubles.
comes the cost of installing one base station on a turnkey basis
Now fighting continues in the new territories, so you should not expect that there will be a “full-fledged carpeting” there, as in other Russian regions, Denis Kuskov, CEO of Telecom Daily, said. In addition, the cost and technological capabilities of the base stations that can be installed there are unknown. The DPR is the largest of the annexed regions, so less base stations will be built in other regions: half of the volume of construction in the DPR or a similar volume for the three remaining regions, Kuskov believes.
Until 2022, the average cost of one base station was about $80,000, or 6 million rubles, continues a source close to one of the operators. But in addition to the cost of the equipment itself, it is necessary to take into account the costs of delivery, installation, laying of fiber optic cable and other work. “In the countryside, the station is installed on an antenna-mast structure, which, depending on the height and type of foundation, can cost an additional 5 million to 15 million rubles. In the event of a power outage, the base stations are equipped with a battery pack and backup diesel generators. Therefore, if we take the cost of installing one base station on a turnkey basis, then it is worth proceeding from the average cost of one object of about 15–18 million rubles, the interlocutor calculated.
Experts agree that there will definitely not be deliveries from the main foreign manufacturers of telecommunications equipment (Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE) to the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.
The most likely contender for the supply of Russian-made base stations is the Spektr company, which is part of Rostec, according to Vedomosti sources close to several federal operators. According to Kuskov, we can talk not only about the base stations of Spektra and Skoltech (engaged in the development of telecom equipment), but also about used ones, because there is no new foreign equipment.
The representative of Skoltech, in response to a question about the supply of equipment for new regions, said that there were no such agreements. The first working samples of LTE equipment will appear in June 2023, and it will take at least two years to debug production, so the mass production of base stations will begin no earlier than 2025, Sivolobov specified.
Vedomosti sent inquiries to Phoenix, ISS, Mirtelecom and K-Telecom. Representatives of Miranda-media and Rostelecom declined to comment.
Rostec did not respond to Vedomosti’s request.
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