According to Irina Glukhova, Managing Partner

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It turns out that three members of the "big four" have an affiliated or at least close Russian developer of base stations, with which a forward contract for their supply has been concluded. For MTS, this is Irtea, for Tele2/Rostelecom - Bulat LLC (Rostelecom controls 51% of shares in it through Commit Capital LLC), and for MegaFon - Yadro Group of Companies. The latter is part of ICS Holding, which MegaFon's largest beneficiary Alisher Usmanov sold to finland whatsapp number database Anton Cherepennikov and then bought back (in June 2022, Cherepennikov again became the owner of ICS Holding, but after his tragic death in July 2023, the new ownership structure has not yet been formed).
of ComNews Research, the fact that MTS, Tele2 and MegaFon have created related BS developers may be both a plus and a minus. "The positive side of such a connection may be that the operator is ready to allow the affiliated vendor access to internal data. This will allow more effective testing of equipment and elimination of shortcomings," says Irina Glukhova. "Possible negative sides are higher prices for "foreign" operators and preferential satisfaction of requests of the related cellular company."

The only participant of the Russian "big four" that did not acquire a close BS developer was PAO VimpelCom (trade mark "Beeline"). The company did this deliberately and does not plan to change course. "The needs of none of the operators are sufficient to ensure an economically viable volume of production of base stations," Valery Shorzhin, executive vice president for technology at PAO VimpelCom, told ComNews. "The number of vendors of this equipment around the world can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Therefore, demand is important in this situation - Beeline's orders are capable of adjusting the case of any of the mentioned manufacturers for the better."

Valery Shorzhin noted that it is not yet obvious which of the projects to create domestic BS will be successful. "We communicate with all the participants and see that everyone is still at the beginning of the journey," she says. "The probability that one of the three projects will be successful is higher than each one separately. The opportunity to work with a leader is more valuable than working with a "pocket" player."

To manage the risk of being left without domestic equipment, Beeline signs forward contracts: this operator has such documents with Yadro Group and Bulat LLC.

Dating club

During the winter opening of the "World of Digital" pavilion at the "Russia" exhibition and forum, it became clear that the Rostec State Corporation, which started with attempts to create 5G equipment and is now developing LTE base stations, has also found a partner in the operator environment. Anna Sharipova, Managing Director for National Projects at Rostec State Corporation, reported that Spektr LLC, which is part of the state corporation, is creating a base station for dedicated, technological and special 4G/LTE networks. She named special customers as target clients for Spektr, adding that such a customer was AO Voentelecom. This operator is in the orbit of the Russian Ministry of Defense, for which many Rostec enterprises produce various products - so in this case, an affiliated "operator - vendor" pair has also emerged. "Voentelecom" is less demanding and more interested in growing a vendor for itself," said Anna Sharipova, adding that large mobile operators are not interested in such cooperation, as they are afraid to risk the quality of communication for subscribers.

According to Anna Sharipova, Spektr and Voentelecom have already conducted the first stage of field testing of 10 LTE base stations in Sevastopol. In August 2023, the Zvezda TV channel reported that Voentelecom is solving the problems of coverage and improving the quality of communication on the Crimean Peninsula and improving communication networks in Sevastopol through its subsidiary VTK-Mobile LLC (created in June 2021 - ComNews note ). "The volume and timing of deliveries of base stations should be synchronized with Voentelecom and the Ministry of Defense, based on their tasks for building an LTE network on the Crimean Peninsula," summarized the Managing Director for National Projects of Rostec State Corporation. Anna Sharipova added that in the first half of 2024, Spektr LLC intends to find a technology partner (or partners) from among companies moving in the same direction.