Telecom Lead Europe: Mobile service provider VimpelCom
has won LTE license in Russia.
VimpelCom is among the winners of contest for four LTE
licenses to render LTE 4G services.
The licenses allow the winning companies to provide
services via networks that use the LTE standard and its further modifications
within the frequency band of 791-862 MHz.
VimpelCom has been granted the license to render services
within the radio frequency band of 813.5-821/854.5-862MHz across the Russian
territory.
As a condition of the licence, VimpelCom will start
providing services no later than June 1, 2013.
The company has a roll out obligation to cover 6 regions
by 2013; 12 regions by 2014; 20 regions by 2015; 30 regions by 2016; 50 regions
by 2017; 60 regions by 2018; and full coverage in the Russian Federation by
2019.
Each winner will have to invest at least RUR 15 BLN
annually until its federal LTE network is built (the federal LTE network must
be built within 7 years, starting from 2013).
“We are very happy with our victory in the LTE license
contest. We have already commenced modernizing our network and making it
LTE-compatible. We are looking forward to offering up-to-date and customized
services with high-speed Internet access to our customers on cutting-edge 4G
technology. We strongly believe that they will enjoy their LTE mobile web
experience, contributing to the growing popularity of mobile data services and
thus advancing the state objective of country-wide Internet coverage,”
said Anton Kudryashov, CEO of VimpelCom.
VimpelCom provides services under the Beeline, Kyivstar,
djuice, Wind, Infostrada, Mobilink, Leo, banglalink, Telecel, and Djezzy
brands.
As of March 31, 2012 VimpelCom had 209 million mobile
subscribers on a combined basis.
