MOSCOW-CDMA carriers continue to operate in Russia, working to recoup costs and hoping for a possible replacement of Communications Minister Leonid Reiman, who warned last year that the U.S.-developed IS-95 standard is doomed in the country.
“I continue to believe that the standard has absolutely no prospects for the Russian market. We shall stick to the line,” said the minister, who backs European-developed technologies.
Reiman made it clear that carriers operating IS-95-based CDMA technology in the 800 MHz band would have to switch to new standards when their licenses expire. That is likely to happen in 2010, when the band is to be assigned to digital television.
“The deadline for the standard operation has been fixed, and there are corresponding decisions of the State Commission on frequency distribution. The carriers, which constructed such networks have to normally operate them, recuperate the costs and find a way of switching to another technology or business, if they are interested in it,” Reiman said.
He added that even if the licenses are extended to “normally operating carriers,” “additional items may be included into them and outdated provisions excluded.”
Although Reiman agreed that IS-95 is “a normal and operating standard,” he said, “there are several dozen good standards in the world. It is impossible to combine all of them in one country.”
The CDMA Association, a group of Russian CDMA carriers, protested, saying the minister lacks sufficient information on the IS-95 standard. It stressed the number of CDMA clients is rapidly growing in the world and currently exceeds 80 million.
Carriers push forward
Despite Reiman’s warnings, CDMA carriers continue to push the technology. Last year, the number of CDMA subscribers in Russia increased 2.5-fold and comprised 81,000 as of 1 January, 2001. The number of commissioned networks in 2000 was 1.8 times higher than in 1999.
Personal Communications (SONET), which has provided CDMA services since 1998, said in February it completed the 18-month reconstruction of its network in the Moscow metropolitan area. Last October, the company launched commercial operation of the new equipment valued at US$40 million and supplied by Lucent Technologies.
SONET Director General Mikhail Susov said the company plans to increase the number of subscribers from 25,000 to 100,000 this year. New IS-95 networks are to be launched in the Yaroslavl, Tver and Tula regions by the end of April.
“We have to live up to 2010,” said Susov. “The question of how telecommunications will develop after that remains open.”
But SONET conceded it might leave the 800 MHz band on certain terms. “Already now we are morally ready, if the situation demands, to move to another frequency band, which will be used for 3G (third-generation) systems in Russia. Naturally, we shall not abandon the 800 MHz band if we are not compensated for with 3G frequencies,” said Anatoly Subbotin from Corporate Communications, a public relations agency of SONET. “If the task is set to provide 3G services and the necessary licenses and frequencies are granted, the company will create a network and will successfully operate it.”
Moscow Cellular Communications (MCC), an NMT 450 MHz carrier, received permission in February to roll out a CDMA 450 MHz trial network in the metropolitan area of the capital. Lucent Technologies, South Korea’s Hyundai Electronics Industries and U.S.-based Qualcomm are to supply the equipment. Test trials are scheduled for the second quarter of 2001, after which authorities will decide whether to permit a commercial network or not.
In St. Petersburg, Communications Line, an Internet service provider, received permission for commercial operation of stationary S-CDMA technology, a fixed wireless system. Company Technical Director Iosif Goldfeld said the license requires the company to have at least 10,000 subscribers by 2007. The company purchased a CD-2000 complex allowing voice and data transmission from U.K.-based Granger Telecom two-and-a-half years ago, and now the equipment covers an area of 20 to 25 kilometers.
“Carriers want to recoup costs. It seems they also hope that Reiman, who has traditionally been in favor of the European GSM standard, may be one day replaced by a minister who would back U.S.-developed technologies,” said Anton Pogrebinsky from Moscow-based J’Son & Partners telecom consultancy.
However, Russian emphasis on European technologies does not depend on Reiman only. The country belongs to the first European zone designated by the International Telecommunication Union, where the “CDMA standard is not envisaged,” said anti-monopoly minister Ilya Yuzhanov.
Besides, Russia has already adopted a concept of telecommunications market development, where European technologies are dominating. Now Reiman’s ministry is drafting a new communications bill, which, if adopted, will turn pro-European concept provisions into a law.
