Russia's telecom watchdog fails to allocate bands for 5G testing to MTS, Beeline, Rostelecom

Russian state radio frequencies commission SRFC has not allocated frequencies for 5G testing to operators Rostelecom, MTS and Beeline, reports Cnews.ru. Megafon will be the only operator which is able to test 5G. The decision was blocked by the Federal Security Service and the state space agency Roskosmos, with both claiming that the bands are being used for the management of spacecrafts.   

Initially, the Commission planned to approve applications from the operators and some other companies. MTS was expected to get bands on the 27.5-28.35 GHZ band in the cities of Moscow, St Petersburg, Kazan, Rostov and Sochi. Beeline was expected to be get the 3.4-3.8 MHz GHz band in the cities and regions of Moscow and St Petersburg, in the Voronezh, Samara, Krasnodar and Stavropol regions, as well as in the Republic of Tatarstan. Rostelecom was expected to get the 3-3.44 GHz and 3.545-3.55 GHz bands in the city and region of Moscow, in the Republic of Tatarstan, in St Petersburg, as well as in the Ivanovo, Belgorod and Kaliningrad regions.  

In summer of 2016, the watchdog allocated the 3.4-3.8 GHz and 25.25-29.5 GHz bands for Megafon. The operator will be able to test the 5G technology in the cities of Moscow, St Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Nizhniy-Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Yekaterinburg, Volgograd, Rostov and Kaliningrad.