3G Russian-style: "conformed to the three"

On Friday, April 20 were released the results of the final meeting of the competition committee of the Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz) over the distribution of licenses for mobile services of third generation (3G). The winners in the competition were MegaFon, OJSC Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and VimpelCom (Beeline).

As expected, the license got all three operators, members of the "big three" commercial exploitation of third-generation networks is expected to begin next year.

As the president of ICU Union Aleksandr large, in the decision-making committee carefully studied the proposals of all participants on the timing and volume of building networks of 3G. The first experience in frequency allocation on a competitive basis took place, although not everything went smoothly, and, in recognition of the master Krupnova, the scheme of charging "points" was not until the end of your time. For example, in the developed criteria for assessing the amount promised by the BS almost did not score? - If only more of the threshold of two thousand. A fundamentally new approach of the competition is that the preliminary promise winning operators will now be recorded in the license agreement, and the revision of the figures in connection with any "changed circumstances" will not work.

Initially, enrollment in the competition for licenses for the services of third generation mobile communication provided 13 companies of which in early April, the Commission selected applications only seven. The rest of the contest had been suspended for various reasons: arrears to the budget, the lack of the necessary licenses, etc. That is suggestive of intelligibility and completeness of the wording of the conditions of participation. While Alexander has complained of a large and obvious PR-entity application "of individual participants. Of course, not everyone was happy with the results, were made public accusations that the very conditions of the tender leaves no chance to other candidates. Is it likely judicial review is a decision? Deputy Head of the Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz) Svetlana Vlasova sure the futility of such attempts: "A lot has happened. The contest was organized correctly, the commission made the right decision, and screening of participants was justified. "

It is no secret that in most European countries, third-generation networks have long been working, customers are beginning to get used to video calls and fast mobile Internet. Test plots were arranged 3G and tested by Russian operators a few years ago, as, for example, Beeline has since managed to build and launch a 3G network in Tajikistan. Russia is hopelessly behind with licensing? Alexander Krupnov sure that the "gap", but there is work on the mistakes of European companies: due to take a break from Russia an opportunity to step through the stages of development failures, and immediately build a 3G network based on the latest technologies. IeEverything was well planned and Communications Ministry has shown an enviable wisdom and prudence.

Manufacturers of handsets for new mobile technologies are ready today, 10% of handsets sold in Russia is already "know how" to work in third-generation networks. According to the new conditions of certification of terminals is the nature of the notification, thereby introducing new models on the Russian market is markedly accelerated. With the network infrastructure equipment is not all that bright. Certification of switching equipment, according to Svetlana Vlasova, should be completed in July, the base stations - God forbid the end of August. It remains to be painstaking work with the military departments to clean up their allocated more resources under socialism RFI, the financial burden of correcting the consequences of short-sighted "donation" of frequencies have to take the cellular companies. And even after a costly clean up most of allocated frequencies will remain in the category "for sharing".

However, operators are looking to the future with optimism and expect to please us with new services as early as next year. "The third generation network will provide a new impetus to the development of the company and further expand the range of telecommunications services to our customers world-class quality, simple and effective. 3G will enable new opportunities to make the communication of our customers even more interesting and productive "- says the president of MTS Leonid Melamed. Although the use of these opportunities can not all: the operators themselves are interested in building 3G networks primarily in major cities, where the existing frequency resources are already no longer enough. Especially in the center on weekdays, where the additional capacity will relieve the existing 3G GSM networks even from those devices that support this standard.



In the future, new technologies allow Sotovik release of resources and to put on the market of virtual operators, which will promote increased competition and will benefit the consumer. At least sure of Alexander Krupnov, referring to the experience of European operators. Agrees with him CEO of VimpelCom Alexander Izosimov: "Action taken by the Commission, in my opinion, meets the interests of both Russian consumers and the interests of the industry, and the Russian economy as a whole and will promote healthy competition in the Russian telecommunications market."

With the price of the issue and the volume of investments is unclear. MTS plans to invest in a 3G network up to $ 1 billion within three years, roughly the same figures voiced MegaFon. Guide VimpelCom says 300-350 million dollars in 2007-2008. Talk about payback in the next few years is not necessary for the foreseeable future, the money will mostly spend. In this sense, revealing quote from a press release of VimpelCom:

"This press release contains" forward-looking statements, "according to the definition of the term in Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act. These statements relate to competition in the Russian telecommunications industry as a result of allocating licenses for today's competitions and are based on information currently available management of VimpelCom. There can be no assurance that the licenses allocated through a competitive tender, will lead to greater competition in the Russian telecommunications industry, that the tender results will not be challenged or that the license awarded to VimpelCom will be issued or will not be revoked after issuance. In addition, the deployment of 3G network requires significant financial investment, and can be no assurance that VimpelCom will be able to deploy a 3G network at a profit. "