Dead networks. Russian mobile operators who died without being born
As ComNews learned, the Antares company is preparing to launch a TDD-LTE test network in Moscow in the range of 1900-1920 MHz. The network will be built within two months using the equipment Chinese company Datang Telecom. In the future, Antares, which won frequencies for fourth-generation networks from the State Committee for Radio Frequencies and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications in May, promises to cover 4G throughout Russia. The next commercial launches are planned for the summer of 2012.
Its vice president, Mikhail Grachev, told a ComNews reporter about the plans of the Antares group of companies. “In Russia, Antares plans to build a network throughout the country, since it is the wide coverage of the territory that is economically justified for the project,” he noted.
“Pilot zones are needed precisely and primarily to select an equipment supplier. this moment We are considering four equipment suppliers; accordingly, we are planning four pilot zones using different equipment. In Moscow, over the next two months, a test zone will be deployed on Datang equipment, and by the end of this year two or three more zones will appear on equipment from other suppliers, Mikhail Grachev shared with ComNews. - The planned payback of the project is within industry standards. The most important thing for us now is to build a network and give good service for a fair price. And then consumers will be able to literally vote with their rubles. That is, everything depends on us, on the quality of the service. The next commercial launches are in about a year, in the summer of 2012."
Datang Telecom's director for Russia and the CIS, Mikhail Xiong, in an interview with ComNews, refused to comment on the details of the project and supplies.
The group's interests also extend to foreign markets. As previously reported, the Antares group has already confirmed receipt of frequencies not only in Russia, but also in Ukraine, Vietnam and Cambodia. In addition, the company is negotiating to obtain spectrum in a number of countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Laos, Tunisia, Kenya, Sudan, Nigeria and others, including Latin American countries. In addition, in May the company secured the support of the President of Sri Lanka during negotiations on the allocation of frequencies for 4G.
In Vietnam and Cambodia, the company received frequencies of 2.5-2.7 GHz and has already organized a test zone in Hanoi using Huawei equipment (15 base stations and a network core). According to Mikhail Grachev, Antares is now purchasing Samsung equipment for test zones in Ho Chi Minh City and the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.
The Antares press service clarified that one of the four pilot zones was planned to be organized using equipment produced by Antares together with the holding company " Russian electronics" (owned by the state corporation "Rostechnologies").
“In Moscow, testing will be carried out in accordance with frequencies for Russia and with LTE standards, that is, 1.9 TDD,” Mikhail Grachev emphasized. The same technology was chosen for the construction of the federal network by Voentelecom, which is developing TDD-LTE in Russia at 2.3 GHz frequencies. As ComNews previously reported, Voentelecom tested networks in Moscow and Rostov-on-Don, demonstrating data transmission, including streaming video, at speeds up to 120 Mbit/s. Olga Sokolova, head of the marketing and PR department of Voentelecom, recalled that only two equipment suppliers were able to provide samples industrial production for the network core and base stations - Motorola and Huawei. In a conversation with ComNews, she emphasized that a feature of TDD-LTE is the lack of a wide range of subscriber devices (about 10 in total), which clearly slows down the development of the technology.
The head of Ericsson's press service in Russia, Sergei Skripnikov, agrees with this opinion: “FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) technology is more mature and more widespread in the world, operators are already massively selling subscriber devices for it. TDD-LTE has yet to reach a critical mass, it should be supported by modem and handset vendors. Existing subscriber devices are still prototypes rather than commercial products", he explained.
The transition to LTE is one of the development priorities for the largest Russian operators. In April 2011, by decision of the State Commission on Radio Frequencies (), they united into a Consortium to jointly study the possibilities of switching to new standard. The consortium was created in the form of a non-profit organization based on the membership of the founders - OJSC " " and operators " big three". The executive director of the consortium was the former general director of Sky Link CJSC Gulnara Khasyanova. Until July 1, this organization was supposed to study the possibilities of using the frequency bands 694-915 MHz, 925-960 MHz, 1710-1880 MHz, 1900-1980 MHz, 2010- 2025 MHz, 2110-2170 MHz and 2500-2700 MHz for the implementation of mobile broadband networks in the Russian Federation. We are primarily talking about networks using LTE technology. At the same time, most of the frequencies in our country suitable for the deployment of such networks are occupied radio-electronic means military and aeronautical purposes and requires expensive conversion. It recently became known that the consortium members proposed to the regulator to distribute the spectrum among themselves, and to use only the frequencies 694-915 MHz (digital dividend) and 2.5-2.7 GHz for LTE.
“We hope that the work of the 4G Consortium will contribute to the establishment of clear and transparent processes of interaction between all participants in the project, including members of the Union, ministries, departments, other market participants, etc.,” the press secretary of MTS OJSC noted in an interview with ComNews "Valeria Kuzmenko. “The timing of the deployment of the federal network will directly depend on the frequency range that will be allocated, on the width of the allocated range, on the timing of the tender for the supply of equipment, on the actual production and delivery times,” says Anna Aibasheva, press secretary of VimpelCom OJSC.
The consortium participants also signed an agreement to share the network of Scartel LLC (Yota brand) in the presence of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The agreement for the development of LTE technology provides that Scartel will build single network 4G, from which operators will purchase traffic in bulk. In the future, they will be able to purchase shares of this company.
I’ll say right away that a visit to their website (www.antares4g.ru) did not give the impression that the company was building and launching something. Yes and appearance scary. All words are about the company’s activities in the future tense, but judge for yourself:
The essence of the matter is that Antares is faced with the fact that its neighbors in the 1900-1920 MHz range - Sky Link / Rostelecom, who are building a 3G network, do not assume the presence of a guard interval, which is necessary to exclude interference from one network to another. Often this value is somewhere around 5 MHz.
“The Antares group of companies, owned by entrepreneur Evgeniy Roitman, sent letters to the Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov and the Main Radio Frequency Center (GRFC), in which they complain about Sky Link (Vedomosti has copies). Antares believes that the “daughters” "Sky Link" violated the conditions under which the SCRF allocated them the frequencies 1920-1935 MHz and 2110-2125 MHz for the construction of 3G networks, and asks to cancel these decisions at the next meeting of the commission."
"Sky Link" at one time, under the auspices of the development of CDMA, received these frequencies in order to add this spectrum for sharing with CDMA-450 network. After long time practically nothing was done and for good reason the question of their selection had to be raised, Sky Link suddenly decided to go into 3G and build a UMTS network.
“The annex to the SCRF decisions states that Sky Link can use part of the frequencies (1920-1935 MHz) only after the necessary studies have been completed and the minimum required frequency separation with equipment operating at adjacent frequencies of 1900-1920 MHz has been determined ( “Antares” uses them), it follows from the letters [Antares].
... But Sky Link did not do this, and yet Roskomnadzor and the GRFC subordinate to it are considering the operator’s applications for frequency ratings in this range, Antipina is indignant [approx. CEO"Antares" - c0mandir] in a letter addressed to Nikiforov."
How the issue will be resolved (and 5 MHz for Antares is a noticeable loss) is still unknown; the operators interacted with the relevant government agencies several times, all this was “intertwined” in time.
It is not clear what is preventing Antares from being built and launched for now, for example, at 10 MHz? After all we're talking about about TD-LTE. Maybe someone knows about their achievements. We have already written about the Moscow start (see and).
Source of quotes: Sky Link may lose the rights to build a 3G network - article in the Vedomosti newspaper
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Back in the spring of this year there was a message that the Antares Group of Companies, owned by businessman Evgeniy Roitman and owning LTE frequencies in the range of 1900-1920 MHz, offers Rostelecom to buy a controlling stake." (see). Perhaps these letters from Antares are a kind of reminder of themselves and the “problem”.
The President of Russia supported the idea of creating a “completely domestic” 4G operator based on the Antares network in the 1.9 GHz band. 70 billion rubles will be invested in the construction of the network; the company will focus on low-income segments of the population.
As reported, entrepreneur and owner of the Alliance group of companies Musa Bazhaev sent a letter to Putin regarding the network cellular communications"Antares". He points out that Antares has exclusively Russian roots and asks for the president’s help in building a fourth-generation cellular communication network (4G) of the LTE standard.
The letter contains a handwritten resolution from Vladimir Putin, in which he instructs the Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov to consider and report proposals for support of this project“Taking into account the readiness of the Alliance group.” In addition, the resolution instructs to solve “if necessary” the problem of the separation barrier with other operators mobile communications.
The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications declined to comment. The founder of Antares, Evgeny Roitman, did not answer CNews’ call.
At the end of the 2000s, the Antares group received frequencies in the 1.9 GHz range (1900-1920 MHz) throughout Russia for the development of trunking communications. Subsequently, Antares re-registered the frequencies for LTE technology. For several years, Antares was suing for frequencies in the upper part of this range - 1980-2000 MHz, but in 2015 it lost the relevant proceedings.
The presence of two frequency bands would allow Antares to build a network using technology frequency division channels (FDD). But in the end, the company decided to limit itself to one frequency band and time division division (TDD) technology.
Musa Basazhaev claims that he is ready to invest 70 billion rubles in the construction of the Antares network. First of all, Anatres intends to launch a network in Moscow and the regions where the Russian Platinum company (part of the Alliance group) has mining enterprises - Far East And Krasnoyarsk region. Next, Antares will cover the entire country with its networks.
Bazhaev calls Antares’s Russian roots an important advantage. The company's shares are 100% owned by Russian citizens; it will not use foreign funding or attract foreign management services, including in the technical field.
The Antares network will be built on equipment from Chinese Huawei and will not use Western European and American equipment. All work on the modernization of software and hardware systems used by the company will take place on the territory of Russia from full access Russian specialists.
Antares' tariff policy will be aimed at broad sections of the population, primarily the low-income.
The Russian cellular communications market is heavily monopolized - several major players (MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom, Tele2) control 99% of the 252 million active SIM cards(AC&M Consulting data for the second quarter of 2016).
U local operators there are advantages associated with the scale of the business, wrote the head of the Association in 2014 regional operators communications (AROS) Yuri Dombrovsky. - The smaller the organization, the more efficiently it can operate. A small subscriber base is easier to manage and it is easier to establish relationships with clients.
But so far the situation is not in favor of the “Other” column. The largest operator not from the Big Four, Ekaterinburg-based Motiv, has only 2 million subscribers, the youngest of the four, Tele2, has 39 million.
In the same article, the head of AROS complained about “unfair competition” - in his words, “large companies, using their resources, in one form or another “oppress” their smaller brothers.” For example, small companies face refusal when trying to join the infrastructure of a large one.
Perhaps the situation could have been different - but several ambitious projects never became mobile networks; others were bought by Big Four companies. Our article is about unfulfilled cellular projects of today's most modern fourth generation (4G) mobile communications.
"Osnova Telecom": minister to help
In 2010, the then Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov asked Dmitry Medvedev (then the President of the Russian Federation) to allocate 4G frequencies to the little-known company Osnova Telecom. As Serdyukov explained, it was planned to create a federal dual-use network - for the military and for ordinary consumers.
75% of Osnovy Telecom belonged to the company Ikominvest owned by Vitaly Yusufov (son of former Minister of Energy Igor Yusufov), 25% was controlled by Voentelecom (a structure of the Ministry of Defense).
Medvedev decided to help the military - and in 2011 the company received frequencies with the condition that the Ministry of Defense would make Osnova its exclusive supplier mobile internet. Serdyukov’s department complied with this requirement.
But in 2012, Anatoly Serdyukov lost his high post. The new leadership of the Ministry of Defense did not need the Osnovy network: Minister Sergei Shoigu informed the president about this. In 2013, Nikolai Tamodin, who led Voentelecom at the time of the happy distribution of frequencies, was arrested. As a result, he received a six-year sentence for supplying unusable equipment to the Russian army.
In 2014, the court invalidated the decision of the State Commission on Radio Frequencies (SCRF) to allocate frequencies to Osnova Telecom.
"Summa Telecom": twice unfulfilled
Another 4G operator could be the Summa Telecom company (belongs to the Summa group of Ziyavudin Magomedov). In 2006, this operator received frequencies to create the WiMax network (this “long-range” modification of Wi-Fi uses the same frequency range, 2.5-2.7 GHz, as 4G). But the network was never built - and in 2010, the SCRC reversed its decision. “Summa” appealed to the court with a demand to consider its applications for frequencies in the same range, now for the construction of a fourth generation network (LTE technology). SCRF considered the issue and decided not to issue frequencies.
The Moscow Arbitration Court still ordered that Summa be given a few frequencies. This decision was not supported in appeal and cassation.
Today Summa Telecom is engaged in wired connection- 250 thousand subscribers in 11 regions. A few months ago, a large supplier of telecom equipment - the Chinese Huawei - announced the bankruptcy of this operator.
"Antares": they even got numbers
The Antares company is associated with the structures of businessman Evgeniy Roitman (formerly a top manager at Media Most). The partner of his 4G project, as reported by the media, was the president of the Alliance group, Musa Bazhaev. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the companies of the Antares group belong to the Cypriot company Runelia.
Antares structures received numbering capacity in the “beautiful” code 900. Last year, promises were made to launch an LTE network in the capital by the beginning of 2016. The plans for this year included 13 more regions. So far - nothing.
Last year, Antares tried to take away the voice! brand, which is not used in Russia, from Telecom Italia. Apparently, this should be the name of the yet unborn network - for which several hundred base stations have already been installed in the capital.
Representatives of Antares (like their colleagues from Osnova Telecom and Summa Telecom) did not answer Life’s questions about their plans.
The main problem of domestic mobile operators It has always been that they could use the existing frequency resource only on a secondary basis; communications for the military have always been a priority. In this regard, by the way, the frequency ranges used by Russian cellular operators are several times “shorter” than the ranges of their Western colleagues. Currently, the army is actively moving to digital equipment communications, in the future this promises clearing of the spectrum, thanks to which new operators may still appear in Russia.
A bankruptcy claim was filed in court against the Antares company of Evgeniy Roitman, who planned to create the fifth federal LTE mobile operator. New investors are still unable to build a fourth generation (4G) network and compete with established players
Evgeniy Roitman (Photo: Valery Levitin / RIA Novosti)
The bankruptcy application for Antares LLC was registered on February 13 in the Moscow Arbitration Court, as follows from the file of cases. The lawsuit was filed by Atiks LLC. As Sergei Ambrosenkov, general director of the plaintiff company, explained to RBC, he was associated with Antares’ debt of approximately 13 million rubles. for the installation of base stations.
The Antares Group (including the companies Antares, Arctur and Integral) was registered back in 2007. All legal entities included in the group belong to the Cyprus-based Runelia Limited, but its ultimate beneficiaries have never been disclosed. Market participants have always considered businessman Evgeniy Roitman to be the main shareholder, and he did not deny this. This information was also confirmed by RBC sources close to the businessman. Within several years since the creation of the group, the companies included in it were able to obtain permission from the State Commission on Radio Frequencies (SCRF) for construction mobile network LTE in the range 1900-1920 MHz throughout the country.
In 2015, millionaire Musa Bazhaev, co-owner of Russian Platinum and Alliance Group, became a partner of the company. In the same year, Antares planned to launch an LTE network in Moscow and the Moscow region, and during 2016 to expand to other regions. Among the operator's partners were Chinese manufacturer telecommunications Huawei equipment and the infrastructure company Russian Towers. However, the company had problems with permissions for the frequency resource. At first, Antares tried through the court to oblige the SCRF to allow the use of frequencies of 1980-2000 MHz for operation, but to no avail. Then part of the frequency band in Moscow was completely seized from the company in order to create a protective interval with the network of the T2 RTK Holding company (provides mobile communication services under the Tele2 brand). The latter launched 3G and 4G networks in the capital in the fall of 2015; without a guard interval, interference could occur in the network.
According to Ambrosenkov, since July last year, Antares employees “have virtually stopped working, the new general director has not been in touch.” “We were one of the first among the company’s creditors to receive writs of execution, so we were able to file a bankruptcy claim,” said RBC’s interlocutor.
In July 2016, Kommersant reported that its general director Dmitry Bragin had left Antares. At that time, the group’s employees had not received salaries for about three months, the company did not pay for the rental of positions under base stations and switch, shareholders stopped financing.
An Antares representative declined to comment on the bankruptcy filing. The representative of the Alliance Group did the same. An RBC source familiar with the group’s position noted that it does not manage the project, it is non-core and that “now there is neither intention nor money to compete with the Big Three.”
"Big Four" without an alternative
When in 2010 in Russia they began to discuss the need to allocate a frequency resource for the then new mobile communication standard LTE, several investors new to the telecommunications industry expressed their desire to develop it. In particular, Osnova Telecom, among whose shareholders is businessman Vitaly Yusufov, and Rusenergotelecom (RET, among the owners is Grigory Berezkin) asked SCRF to allocate them a frequency resource for the development of 4G without a competition. This request met with stiff resistance from the largest mobile operators. MTS, MegaFon and VimpelCom wrote collective letters addressed to the then Minister of Communications and mass communications Igor Shchegolev, as well as to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and then-President Dmitry Medvedev, which asked to allocate the LTE frequency resource on the basis of a transparent competition, tender or auction. The troika pointed out that new players will not be able to launch the project and are being created only for subsequent resale to existing operators. As representatives of the Big Three then estimated, creating a federal mobile communications network from scratch requires five to seven years, investments in the amount of $5-7 billion, and large quantity highly qualified specialists and the availability of other necessary conditions, which new players do not have.
The authorities eventually listened to the opinions of the main players and raffled off the frequency resource for 4G at a competition in 2012. In addition to the Big Three, its winner was Rostelecom, which subsequently transferred the resource to T2 RTK Holding (Rostelecom owns 45% of this company).
The Antares group, unlike Osnova Telecom and Rusenergotelecom, asked to be allowed to develop 4G communications at frequencies that the Big Four did not claim. However, as iKS-Consulting analyst Maxim Savvatin noted, Antares initially planned to develop in a “rather exotic range” in which “it is difficult to build something decent.” “As in many other countries, in Russia the entry of new players into the mobile communications market depends on the issue of availability of free frequency resources. This limited resource. Moreover, the larger the frequency band one player receives, the more high speeds will be received by a subscriber in the network of this operator,” says Savvatin. He recalled that in Russia, unlike Western countries, other systems, including military ones, operate at frequencies suitable for the development of 4G. “This further complicates the already difficult situation with finding frequencies for mobile operators,” adds the iKS-Consulting analyst.