Rostelecom, VimpelCom to test national LTE base stations soon

MOSCOW, Jul 20 (PRIME) -- Russian telecom operators Rostelecom and VimpelCom, working under brand Beeline, will start testing national LTE base stations in the field till the end of 2023, the companies’ spokespeople told PRIME on Thursday.

“We are approaching the start of field tests of equipment samples with one of our partners. We plan to start them until the end of the year in the Leningrad or Nizhny Novgorod regions on the stretches of a trial mobile network of the operator, which is as close to real conditions as possible, with load traffic, emergencies,” Vladimir Valkovich, head of strategy and long-term planning at VimpelCom, said.

The company signed two forward contracts with local producers of base stations and the first supplies of equipment are to start at the end of 2025, he added.

Rostelecom signed a contract with telecom equipment maker Bulat for production of 2G/4G base stations.

“Rostelecom expects to receive Bulat’s products for tests until the end of 2023,” a company spokesperson said.

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