MOSCOW—The Russian military are to abandon the 900 MHz band in the coming two years, and the government said the process will be financed by mobile carriers, which will get the freed frequencies.
The government approved in late November the “program of conversion of radio frequencies in the 900 MHz band,” submitted by the Communications Ministry, which said that military and civilian air carriers will move to the higher 1000 MHz band in 2002 and 2003 and that financing will come from off-budget funds.
The ministry said only 4 percent of the spectrum is currently used for civilian purposes, including wireless communications. As a result, carriers have to fight for frequencies, as it happened with Sonic Duo, which had to delay the launch of its GSM network in Moscow because of a lack of spectrum. The carrier finally received certain E-GSM frequencies from the military, as well as some 900 MHz spectrum released by its competitor, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS).
According to the program, air carriers will free the frequencies “after the ground and onboard equipment of radio technical systems of short-range navigation and landing are replaced by modernized equipment operating in the international frequency range.” The Defense Ministry is to order the equipment, and experts estimate the cost of the replacement at around US$1 billion.
“I doubt that carriers can fund such costs all by themselves,” said Valery Volodin, vice president of the Association of the Users of the National Radio Frequency Resource. He believes the government should join the effort as the new law on communications imposes budget duties for the use of frequencies.
Carriers seem to be waiting for details. “It is interesting to know who will pay for what,” an MTS spokesman commented.
