Russia’s largest telecoms operators Rostelecom, MTS, MegaFon and VimpelCom have won a tender to obtain licenses for providing 4-G mobile communications services using LTE technology, the information technology regulator said on Thursday.
The tender offered frequencies in the 791-862 MHz range, with bids submitted by eight companies, including two subsidiaries of Swedish telecoms firm Tele2.
State-run telecoms giant Rostelecom won the frequency range of 791-798.5/832-839.5 MHz, MTS won 798.5-806/839.5-847 MHz, MegaFon won 806-813.5/847-854.5 MHz and VimpelCom got 813.5-821/854.50862 MHz.
The auction winners will also receive frequencies in the 2.5-2.69 GHz bandwidth.
The LTE technology allows data transmission at a speed of up to 150 Mbps or ten times quicker than the 3G UMTS networks and several hundred times faster than the widely spread GPRS/EDGE technology.
The world’s first LTE network was launched in Stockholm on December 14, 2009.
