MTS was the first in Russia to receive a license to create a 5G network

28 juli 2020

The first users of the 5G network created by MTS are expected to be large enterprises and businesses

Mobile TeleSystems, which provides telecommunications services under the MTS brand, was the first in Russia to be licensed to provide 5G mobile services. The company said in a statement that the license to create a network covering almost all regions of Russia (83 out of 85), within which the communications will be carried out (in the range of 24.25-24.65 GHz) under the standard 5G/IMT-2020, issued by Roskomnadzor until July 16, 2025.

''Getting Russia's first 5G license is a historic moment for the industry. We are one step closer to a new era in the history of communication, digitalization and the development of new IT solutions and products,'' commented MTS President Alexei Korna.

Large businesses and businesses are expected to be the first users of the 5G network being created. MTS is already developing its proposals for the use of 5G. It is expected, in particular, that oil and gas companies will be able to use 5G to monitor their pipelines and other infrastructure facilities with drones, and industrial enterprises will be able to use equipment. It is also possible to use 5G in areas such as:

. Medicine - to carry out surgical operations in a remote mode and monitor the condition of patients;
. Retail - to create full-length biometric payment systems;
. Logistics - to automate warehouse operations and unmanned control of forklifts.

''The 5G standard will allow corporate customers to actively use artificial intelligence, internet of things, augmented and virtual reality technologies for remote equipment management, the development of unmanned vehicles, interactive training programs and the creation of the latest quality control systems in production,'' explained Korna.

According to the head of MTS, 5G technologies in the coming years will become ''one of the most important drivers of the development of the country's economy.''

Initially, it was assumed that frequencies in the range of 24.25-24.65 GHz would be put up for auction, but at a meeting on March 17, the State Commission on Radio Frequency (GCRC, the main body involved in the distribution of this resource in Russia) decided to allocate this bandwidth for the development of 5G to an unspecified number of persons. This formulation means that the companies that apply can obtain them.

Anna Aybasheva, a spokeswoman for VimpelCom (Bilein brand), noted that given that any operator can obtain such a license, ''it doesn't matter who was first.'' ''The presence of such licenses among operators does not solve systemic problems with the development of 5G networks in Russia. The license itself does not allow the provision of commercial services in 5G networks without developed rules of application,'' Aybasheva said.

According to her, the range of frequencies allocated by the SCCR for 5G has many limitations, one of which is the ability to exclusively point coverage. ''Even for this range, the spectrum usage conditions set by the SCCR will not allow normal commercial operation of 5G networks,'' Aybasheva said. VimpelCom is technically ready to launch 5G networks, particularly in large cities, but the key problem is the inability to build cost-effective 5G networks without a range of 3.4-3.8 GHz, the operator's spokeswoman concluded.

Rostelecom spokesman Valery Kostarev also noted that the range of 24.25-24.65 GHz can only be used for point covering, for example in an industrial enterprise for the internet of things. ''But even for such tasks there is no operator equipment neither Russian nor foreign production. It is impossible to build a full 5G network with a wide coating on this range, or rather, perhaps, but it will require a huge investment that will never pay off,'' Kostarev said. To create a full-fledged 5G network, he said, the optimal range ''was and remains 3.4-3.8 GHz.'' The representative of MegaFon also noted that the range received by MTS makes it possible only to ''deploy industrial networks in small areas up to 1-2 km'' and that there is currently no necessary equipment on the market to create such networks. A decision on the allocation of additional frequency spectrum is needed for the commercial launch of a full-fledged 5G network, he said.

MegaFon has been testing 5G technology for several years. The company has permanent 5G test zones on the Sparrow Mountains and in Moscow City, as well as on the territory of St. Petersburg State University. In addition, the company, using various projects, successfully demonstrated the use of 5G in a variety of areas - cloud gaming as a private case of border computing (Edge Computing), remote ultrasound on the basis of Morozov Children's City Clinical Hospital in Moscow, 5G at the coal mine in the Kemerovo region, VR-broadcasting of a football match, unmanned passenger shuttle in Kazan together with KAMAS.

Een belangrijk commentaar over de beperking van 5G bij de hogere frequenties heb ik in voorgaande vet aangegeven



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