ST. PETERSBURG, Russia-St. Petersburg-based Delta Telecom, an NMT 450 MHz carrier, launched the first commercial cdma2000 1x network based on the International Mobile Telecommunications-Multi Carrier (IMT-MC) standard and operating in the 450 MHz band.
The network, under the Sky Link trademark, will initially target middle class and corporate clients and provide, besides voice transmission, high-speed Internet access up to 153 kilobits per second (kbps), e-mail of large-volume files, multimedia services and protected access to corporate network resources. Sky Link turns a mobile phone into a terminal, which in the future will also provide e-banking, e-commerce, location positioning and interactive games.
“By launching the Sky Link network of the cdma2000 1x standard, we open a new epoch of mobile communications. High-speed data transmission implemented with the help of the latest network technologies in a mobile phone provide a powerful instrument to corporate users in developing their business. We launch not only a new communications standard, we launch new standards of life,” said Viktor Ustyuzhanin, director general of Delta Telecom.
The network supplied by Lucent Technologies is currently operating only in St. Petersburg, but will later expand to the whole northwestern region of Russia. It currently includes 60 base stations and a switchboard with a capacity of 50,000 clients. Delta said it plans to have 300,000 to 400,000 clients by the end of 2003.
Ustyuzhanin said the carrier will keep the NMT 450 MHz technology for the time being and “will grant privileges to NMT clients in switching to the new digital standard.”
Delta became the first Russian NMT 450 MHz carrier to switch to the third-generation IMT-MC standard. Moscow Cellular Communications (MCC) and Uralvestcom in the Urals are expected to shortly follow suit.
MCC Director General Yuri Khromov said the carrier delayed the launch of its CDMA 450 MHz network until the middle of 2003 because of changes in the shareholder breakdown. He confirmed that the Swedish Tele2 holding sold its 20-percent stake to offshore company Telco Overseas, however, denied that Telco thus got a controlling interest in the carrier. Khromov said the new shareholders, besides Telco, include Gamma Capital investment bank, which bought the 8-percent stake formerly held by Eye Microsurgery Institute and which also controls 22 percent in MCC through RTDC Holding. The scarcely known NeftecomC Company acquired 3 percent from the state-run Radio and TV Institute. Rostelecom and Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS) retained 23.5 percent each.
