Russia's top three mobile operators have asked the Communications Ministry to ban the non-competitive distribution of next-generation LTE technology 4G frequencies to companies which might acquire them for further sale, Kommersant business daily said on Wednesday.
Kommersant quoted a letter signed by MTS President Mikhail Shamolin, MegaFon Chief Executive Officer Sergei Soldatenkov and VimpelCom CEO Yelena Shmatova as saying that they have information on "a number of initiatives to distribute LTE frequencies to smaller companies, which will lead to negative consequences for our users, our companies and the state on the whole."
Kommersant said that the smaller companies are Voentelecom and its subsidiary Osnova Telecom which belong to the Defense Ministry. The ministry, which already owns the bulk of Russian frequencies, has requested surplus frequencies so that it could resell them to other companies or offer services to households.
The letter said that even if the small companies decided to build 4G networks, it would take them much longer than the top three cell operators. They estimate spending on building the 4G network at $5-7 billion within 5-7 years.
MOSCOW, July 8 (RIA Novosti)
