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Big Three Win 3G Tender
Russia’s three major cell operators, MegaFon, MTS and VimpelCom, on Friday were named winners of a state tender for 3G licenses. The companies promise billions of investments in 3G networks across the country. Nevertheless, experts doubt that 3G will oust GSM from the market, estimating 3G’s share on the market at 5 percent by 2010.
MegaFon scored highest at the tender, MTS and VimpelCom coming second and third, respectively, the Federal Communications Service reported.
3G is third-generation technology in mobile phone standards, providing the ability to transfer both voice data and non-voice data (such as downloading information, exchanging email, and instant messaging). 3G uses 5 MHz channel carrier width with the ability of data transmittance at up to 2MB/sec.
MegaFon is going to invest at least $1 billion in the project in the next three years, Sergey Soldatenkov, the company's director general told Kommersant. His deputy, Alexey Nichiporenko noted that cities in Central Russia would be the first to have 3G even earlier than Moscow and St. Petersburg.
MTS declared plans of a similar amount of investment and said its 3G network would cover the whole Russia by 2010. In the meantime, VimpelCom plans to launch the first 3G segment in Moscow by the end of the year, according to the company’s director Alexander Izosimov.
Russia’s three biggest cell operators are likely to spend the total of 6 billion on their 3G networks within the next five years, analysts believe. 3G is expected to account for 5 percent of the cell market by 2010.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 23, 2007
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