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Megafon plans LTE launch on Yota network in H1

Russian mobile operator MegaFon intends to roll out a fourth-generation network under the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard in Moscow and a number of other regions in the first half of 2012, the company said today.

Megafon has received a MVNO licence to offer services over the network of Scartel, working under the Yota brand. The two earlier agreed to work together on the joint development of a LTE network in Russia.

MegaFon will be able to provide LTE services using Scartel's equipment, while Scartel will gain access to MegaFon's network infrastructure. MegaFon and Scartel are working out a cooperation mechanism based on the business model of a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), MegaFon said.

Yota CEO Denis Sverdlov told that the operator plans to launch the LTE network in Moscow on 15 April. The first section of the network is expected to cover downtown of Moscow and places where most active mobile Internet users are concentrated such as business centers, offices, cafes, restaurants, and exhibition centers. Investment in the project will total $60m.

With Yota required to phase out its Wimax services, it will offer existing subscribers a free LTE device. For other customers, a LTE modem will cost 2,900 rubles and a router will be offered for 4,900 rubles.

“On April 14 existing WiMAX network will be switched off causing Internet connection interruption, and after that new network and new devices will be put into operation,” Sverdlov explained. The switching process is excepted to take up to three hours.

Early this year Scartel launched LTE in Novosibirsk. The operator also provides WiMax services in St. Petersburg, Ufa, Krasnodar and Sochi. 4G network will be launched in these cities by September 2012. Total cost of switching to LTE is expected to reach $100m, the firm said.