The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Communications of the Russian Federation proposed at the 5G frequency auction, which will be held before the end of 2025, abandoning the minimum threshold and starting to bid from the beginning so that the auction becomes attractive for operators. The head of the Maksut Shadayev told reporters about this on October 7.
As part of the upcoming auction, the agency also proposes to create opportunities for operators to use previous frequency bands to deploy 5G network on the principle of technology neutrality. In addition, as Maksut Shadayev noted, the operators will have the right to use foreign stations to deploy the fifth generation communication network “until the official Russian network appears.”
The fact that the Russian Digital Development Ministry is considering the possibility of using LTE frequency for the fifth generation network on the principle of technical neutralization has been announced by the Deputy Director of Dmitry Ugnivateko recently at the “Telecommunications: Reboot”, organized by the Comnews Information Group. “Some changes in the auction may appear before the end of 2025 if we receive all the necessary approvals, including the power block. But most likely, LTE's technical neutrality will only for 5G frequency auctions.”
The press service of PJSC Mobile Telesystems (MTS) told reporter Comnews that in the future all frequency bands will be reused for 5G and the next standards. “Due to the small advantage of the 5G spectrum performance compared to the LTE Advanced, technical neutrality will not help increase the speed of data transfer significantly. Operators are interested in having more frequency resources due to the upcoming network capacity,” the MTS press service representative added.
The Press Service of PJSC Megafon has previously stated that the current conditions to deploy the technical neutrality for LTE does not bring economic profits to the operators: “The construction of 5G networks in the LTE band will only promise when there is a movement of a series of subscribers to new communication standards, this will not happen in the near future. And the implementation of the official 5G network will not be refunded in the 16G network. in the near future. ” The next 20 years. In addition, there are other technological risks that may not lead to increased capacity or speed, which leads to the degradation of existing networks. ”
“Unlike the European Union, where the 5G auctions often end with a huge amount of money (for example in Germany and Italy), where the debt burden on operators and slowing down the investment process in infrastructure, the approach of the digital development ministry is closer to a more balanced model, such as can be seen in Brazil. Investments in the network, ”Konstantin Savin, a business partner of IXP-Consulting.
He added that there are examples from neighboring countries, such as Uzbekistan, where the 5G frequency is offered at a much lower fixed cost than auction to facilitate investment in network development.
As Konstantin Savin noted, technology neutrality is a completely standard and expected practice worldwide. “The management agencies in the US, the UK and other countries have long allowed operators to use the frequency spectrum (for example, at the band 2,3-2.6 GHz) for both 4G and 5G. This is not an innovation but a rules of Russia in accordance with global standards and this is definitely a positive thing. Moreover, the decision on technology neutrality is not attached to the new frequency auctions. conclude.
The leading analyst of Eldar Murtazin Mobile Research Group noted that the 5G frequency auction is expected to be held at a high rate but before no network operators are ready to participate in this auction.
“Now,” Now, in order to develop the fifth generation network, the management agency will eliminate limited in the form of using Russian stations – that is, in fact, 5G is given to foreign suppliers. This will generally help exploits deploy the fifth generation network. ” According to him, the development of domestic equipment is delayed-in 2026-2027. Using it online is hard to perform.
The press agency of VIMPELCOM PJSC (Beeline) and T2 Mobile LLC (TELE2) declined to comment.
