The deployment of 5G in Russia at domestic base stations will begin in 2026
Work on the creation of domestic mobile communication systems has intensified after the two largest telecom equipment suppliers, Nokia and Ericsson, left the Russian market last year, and the vendor Huawei took a break. Now the pace of implementation of 5G networks in Russia will largely depend on how quickly mass production of base stations appears in the country.
Yadro is also developing BS in Russia. Unlike its colleagues from Irtea, this vendor creates proprietary equipment and claims to become the fourth company in the world with its own technology stack, along with Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei.
Yadro plans to begin serial production and supplies of BS to telecom operators in the second quarter of 2025. At the first stage, the equipment will support the 4G standard to meet the current needs of telecom operators, and in the future there will be BS for fifth generation networks.
Alexey Shelobkov, CEO of Yadro and Bureau 1440 (part of ICS Holding), also spoke about plans to create a low-orbit satellite constellation to provide communication services, including the 5G standard.
The first three Bureau 1440 spacecraft were launched and put into orbit in the summer of 2023 as part of the Dawn-1 mission to conduct experiments during which video conferencing sessions were carried out and were able to achieve speeds of 40-50 Mbit/s . Satellite launches will continue in 2024. The launch of a commercial satellite Internet service is scheduled for 2027, which will provide data transmission at speeds of up to 900 Mbit/s with a delay of 70 ms. For basic coverage, the company will need 250 satellites, and for global coverage, about 700 spacecraft will be launched into orbit by 2030. Moreover, it is planned to provide not only high-quality 5G communication through a subscriber terminal, which will distribute a signal to any user devices - tablets, laptops, phones, but also to work on creating a hybrid communication network that will allow ordinary mobile devices to connect to satellites (direct-to- device).
Vladimir Freinkman, director of marketing and systems research at STC Proteus, which is developing the core of the mobile network, is confident that the development of 5G must begin with the B2B segment, introducing private dedicated communication networks.
The main realistic consumer of 5G services is the departmental segment that solves the problems of automation and digitalization of industry, says Vladimir Freinkman. “This is where fifth generation networks will have the greatest effect. This is where delays need to be minimized,” the expert explained.
According to him, 5G solutions may be in demand for such services as control of unmanned devices, video communication at sites, providing communication to certain categories of users who must stay in touch regardless of the congestion of public mobile networks.
“In some cases, in industrial projects, it is sufficient to implement 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) networks using a universal 4G/5G-ready core, which allows you to quickly implement and deploy networks,” emphasized Vladimir Freinkman, adding that today there are more All fifth generation communication networks were launched specifically in the interests of industrial companies.
Telecom operators will approach the issue of developing 5G for the B2C segment very carefully, noted Vladimir Freinkman. The list of attractive services is extremely limited; these are primarily virtual reality, games, and video content. “But in conditions of low ARPU and high availability of connection to fixed networks, payback looks problematic,” he explained.
In 2024, Proteus intends to begin pilot projects with a 5G network core in Standalone (SA) mode. The implementation of these developments on private networks is planned to begin in 2024-2025, readiness for commercial implementation of individual components on public 5G SA networks - in 2025-2026, and comprehensive implementation on public networks - in 2026-2027.
