ST. PETERSBURG, Russia-Motorola and Russia’s RadioTel launched a TETRA trial network in the second-biggest Russian city of St. Petersburg last year, planning to turn the technology into a federal standard and causing concern among cellular carriers attentively following the developments.
TETRA is a European-developed digital dispatch standard that allows business users to communicate by talking to a closed group of users or to an individual similar to a mobile-phone call, in addition to having mobile data capabilities.
RadioTel, which is a part of the Telecominvest holding, currently operates an Enhanced Digital Access Communications System (EDACS) dispatch network from Ericsson. The network covers 10,000 square kilometers of the St. Petersburg metropolitan area, and in the third quarter of 2000, had 2,000 clients from the urban administration, police, ambulances, taxis and municipal facilities.
Last August, the company received a license in the 410 MHz to 430 MHz spectrum band to construct a TETRA trial network for the northwestern region, and Motorola supplied a base station and 30 terminals for the system.
RadioTel Director General Sergei Muranevich said the new technology would keep old clients and attract new ones. “RadioTel will not trail along in the back of the technological process and will not allow the emergence of any competitors,” he said. “If a decision is passed on the creation of a TETRA network, it will be passed on the federal level for construction of compatible regional networks on the Russian territory.”
“The project with RadioTel was a key to the successful development of the TETRA technology in Russia,” said Sergei Beshev, Motorola manager for business development in Russia. He added that TETRA would compete with major wireless carriers, but only for corporate clients.
Telecominvest estimated the demand for two-way radio handsets in Russia is 2.9 million in the industrial sector only. RadioTel Technical Director Vladimir Safronov said a minimum of 3,000 clients is necessary to cover TETRA operating costs, and the figure is quite achievable in greater St. Petersburg.
The minimal cost of constructing a TETRA network with a limited set of services is estimated at US$3 million, according to Company, a Russian business magazine. Experts list two reasons for TETRA’s start-up in St. Petersburg, rather than the capital. The technical reason is that all the necessary frequencies in Moscow are occupied by the military. The political reason is that Telecominvest was created with the help of Leonid Reiman, who is now the country’s communications minister and comes from St. Petersburg. Reiman reportedly continues to support Telecominvest.
There are no current federal standards for trunked radio technology. The Communications Ministry is reportedly considering several standards, including TETRA. Reiman traveled to St. Petersburg to see the TETRA network in operation, and experts began calling the project a “general rehearsal” for the whole of Russia because of the visit.
Major competitors are keeping a close eye on St. Petersburg’s TETRA plans.
“We are attentively following the development of all new technologies, specifically those which are close to the 450 MHz spectrum,” said Alexander Manoshkin, a spokesman for Moscow Cellular Communications (MCC), which operates an NMT 450 MHz network. “TETRA may enjoy protectionist support of the state, as various government agencies are usually the first to become its clients. And they form the attitude of authorities to that or another technology.”
First Deputy Director of Moscow-based MTK-trunk Alexei Kiryushkin said TETRA has a good chance of becoming a federal standard. “The (U.S.-developed) APCO (Project) 25 technology can also be accepted as the federal standard, but TETRA has better chances,” he said.
Kiryushkin said the Russian customs agency is likely to become the first TETRA user as it has enough influence and power to get the necessary frequencies and construct a major network. He predicted the first operating TETRA network to appear within a year.
Mobile Telesystems (MTS), Moscow’s largest cellular carrier, announced a new service for corporate clients last November.
