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Mobile operator launches services in two regions, plans to extend to St Petersburg, Leningrad and Moscow in next two months.
Russian mobile operator Tele2 has launched an LTE network using 450-MHz spectrum in the Tver and Novgorod regions of the country, a move it says will help to bridge the digital divide.
The service, offered under the Skylink brand, is primarily designed as a home broadband replacement for rural and remote areas in which GSM coverage is unreliable. However, in addition to offering home broadband routers, the telco is also launching a mobile 4G router for use while travelling.
As it stands, the service is available on a single tariff. For 990 roubles (€13.2) per month, users get 4 GB of data; outside of that limit, data is charged at RUB0.24 per megabyte.
"[The] main advantage of the LTE-450 network lies in [the] fact that subscribers may use mobile service in locations earlier unavailable," said Sergey Emdin, CEO at Tele2 Russia.
"Thanks to LTE-450 networks, high-speed wireless Internet will appear in residential areas where [the] digital divide issue is not yet solved as operators see no expediency in [the] rollout of networks at these territories," he added.
Tele2 has plans to extend the service in the near future. It anticipates launching LTE-450 in the St Petersburg and Leningrad areas by the end of the month, and plans to add the Moscow region by end-July.
In addition, it plans to start offering business-to-business services under the Skylink brand, and is working on an MVNO project for the development of special purpose networks for government and security bodies, as well as looking at opportunities in the machine-to-machine space, particularly around transport and banking.
"We consider the technology to be a very promising solution that may be successfully used in such segments as M2M, B2B and B2G," Emdin said.
