Report: Russia to spend 21 bln rbl on 5G nets equipment until 2024

MOSCOW, Oct 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian government will spend 21.4 billion rubles till 2024 on development of local equipment for 5G networks, business daily Vedomosti reported late on Monday.

The money will be directly given to state corporation Rostec, which is in charge of creation of 5G equipment, said a source familiar with the decision of the government’s commission for digital development, which met in late September to discuss the matter.

A Rostec spokesperson said that the budget, including non-state sources, of all measures under the roadmap to develop 5G, which is yet to be approved, amounts to 42.9 billion rubles. The money will be spent not only on design of the equipment, but also on its promotion abroad.

Researcher TelecomDaily General Director Denis Kuskov has doubts that Rostec will manage to substitute imported equipment fully even with such subsidies, and it is clear that 5G networks will appear in the country no sooner than in five years.

The operators have to wait for local equipment that will appear no sooner than in 2023, and if they are permitted to build the network now, they will use foreign equipment and will not change it for locally produced gadgets three years later, he said.

Since the country has not allocated frequencies for 5G, the standard will appear in Russia when some other states have already launched test zones for 6G, Kuskov said.

(78.1281 rubles – U.S. $1)

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