The company is launching base stations operating in the 2.3–2.4 GHz range, which was initially allocated to Rostelecom to cover socially significant facilities. Tele2 base stations operating in the LTE standard at 2.3–2.4 GHz were discovered in St. Petersburg by the Telecom Daily agency, which was testing mobile communications in the city. “The control and measuring complex revealed the work of base stations with the international digital code 250-20, belonging to Tele2, they worked at these frequencies,” says Denis Kuskov, general director of Telecom Daily. Such base stations are already operating in Moscow, he says.
Tele2 previously applied to Roskomnadzor for permits to operate base stations using 2.3-2.4 GHz, says a person familiar with federal officials and managers of several communications companies. How many of them were satisfied, he found it difficult to say.
Representatives of Tele2 and Rostelecom preferred not to comment on the situation. They did not refute the launch of the equipment of the subsidiary of Rostelecom on the network of the parent company.
Rostelecom became the owner of 2.3-2.4 GHz frequencies in all regions of Russia at the end of 2019 – then the State Commission for Radio Frequencies (SCRF) allocated them without competitive procedures for the construction of cellular networks covering socially significant objects: schools, parts of the Russian Guard and fire brigade, feldsher-obstetric points and so on. A year later, at the end of 2020, the SCRF actually allowed the use of these frequencies to operate on the mass market – the wording prescribing to use them for telephony and Internet connection only for social facilities disappeared from the previous decision.
The situation when frequencies are allocated to one legal entity, and operated by another, is quite legal in Russia. For example, Skartel’s LTE frequencies (Yota brand) are used by Megafon, which owns it.
Russian civilian signalmen have already tried to approach the 2.3-2.4 GHz range. The most striking attempt was made in 2011, when the SCRF allocated them to Osnova Telecom, a joint venture between Vitaly Yusufov’s Aykominvest and Voentelecom controlled by the Ministry of Defense; they were issued at the request of the then Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. True, after Sergei Shoigu took this post, it turned out that the project was not interesting to the military department. In 2014, Osnova Telecom was deprived of frequencies by a court decision, and in 2015, fragments of an already launched network stopped working.
Market participants surveyed by Vedomosti believe that frequencies of 2.3–2.4 GHz are a good acquisition for Tele2 and Rostelecom. As a result, Tele2 may receive the same or even a larger frequency band than it currently operates, respectively, it will be able to provide a higher speed of Internet access and provide quality service to a larger number of subscribers, says a person familiar with officials from relevant departments. True, in practice, the frequency band used will vary from region to region, depending on the restrictions associated with the operation of other consumers, he adds.
“2.3-2.4 GHz is already supported by most of the world’s smartphones and other mobile devices,” notes Kuskov. “Having received these frequencies, Tele2 could, in the future, speed up LTE on its networks by about 50%.”
The wider the frequency range used by the operator, the fewer base stations it needs for high-quality coverage of the same zones: a two-fold increase in the frequency band will reduce the cost of their construction by about 30%.
The range of 2.3-2.4 GHz is also needed by Rostelecom itself: using, among other things, these frequencies, the operator intends to install telephones and connect to the mobile Internet villages and villages with a population of 100 people or more. Already in 2021, more than 1,000 base stations will be installed in such places, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said earlier this week. They will be built by attracting funds from the universal service reserve, to which all operators deduct 1.2% of their revenue (in 2020 Rostelecom received from it in the form of compensation for the provision of unprofitable socially significant services a little less than 13 billion rubles. in the operator’s report).
MTS and Megafon declined to comment, VimpelCom did not respond to Vedomosti’s request.
“The out-of-competition frequency allocation for the program of connecting socially significant facilities and universal services has created unjustified preferences for Rostelecom and Tele2 over other operators – frequencies in Russia are in a very large deficit,” says Sergey Polovnikov, head of Content-Review. “Despite the fact that industry officials have repeatedly spoken about the need to allocate frequency resources at tenders and auctions, this principle is not systematically observed.”
The system of state ordering of communication services, during which Rostelecom often becomes a monopoly contractor on certain projects and gains sole access to certain resources, is ineffective, Polovnikov says: “To cover remote areas and socially significant objects, it would be more expedient to create an infrastructure operator how it is done in Europe. In this case, the right to use it and apply for state compensation could be a variety of companies. “
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