MOSCOW—The CDMA Association, uniting Russian carriers operating CDMA technology, reported a record growth in the number of subscribers this year, clearly aiming to convince the Communications Ministry that the U.S.-developed IS-95 standard should be preserved in the country.
The association said the subscriber figure nearly doubled in the first three quarters of the year, while the total growth of mobile-phone users in the country was 84 percent during the period. The absolute figure in the end of the third quarter was 160,000 subscribers compared with 84,000 in the beginning of 2001. The association predicted to have 200,000 subscribers by year-end. The leading carriers include Sonet in Moscow, MetroTelKazan in Tatarstan on the Volga, and Narodny Telefon in Saratov.
Russian Communications Minister Leonid Reiman is a staunch opponent of the IS-95 standard, and his ministry ordered CDMA carriers and AMPS/D-AMPS operators to abandon their spectrum by 2010, which is to be occupied by a television technology. AMPS/D-AMPS carriers reached a compromise and were offered the 1800 MHz band, while CDMA has failed to achieve an acceptable solution with the ministry so far.
However, CDMA Association Chairman Sergei Piskov has displayed a cautious optimism of late. “If in the beginning of the year the Communications Ministry refused to discuss the CDMA issue altogether, now the people in the ministry are striving to find a compromise solution,” he said.
Still wireless market experts believe the CDMA technology has no major prospects in Russia and will hardly succeed to compete with GSM carriers, which service 80 percent of all subscribers compared with 2.5 percent of CDMA carriers.
Besides, the IS-95 standard was restricted in mobility in Russia and licensed to work only as a fixed-mobile technology in residential areas that lack landlines.
“One can speak about CDMA competition with local landline operators rather than with wireless carriers,” said Anton Pogrebinsky from J’Son & Partners telecom consultancy in Moscow.
The CDMA Association acknowledged its small share, but insisted that the technology deserves at least “respect” from the ministry. “Definitely, the CDMA network share on the Russian market is not big, but if we compare the dynamics of the introduction of mobile communication standards in Russia in the first four years, we can conclude that the IS-95 standard has shown its best even in conditions of tough restrictions on its development and that activities of carriers deserve respect,” it said.
