April 20, 2007 at 19:30'Big Three' crushed 3G
According to the results of today's three competitions for the issuance of frequencies in the range of 2.1 GHz for the third generation of cellular communications (3G), the winners were the operators of the Big Three mobile companies - Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Vimpelcom (Beeline trademark), "Megaphone". At the first competition, with the best selection of frequencies (that is, the most cleared of military services), MegaFon won with the largest number of points - 560. The winner of the second competition was MTS - 559 points, the third - Vimpelcom with 550 points. The rest of the participants didn’t get close to the Big Three: Vladivostok-based New Telephone Company (owned by Korea Telecom) received 437 points, unknown to the Aurora-Telecom market - 436 points, Chelyabinsk Cellular Communication (owned by Swedish Tele2) - 428 points.
The competitions took into account factors such as a set of licenses for communication services, the term of work in the telecommunications market, etc. As a result, the victory of the Big Three was initially predicted. True, until the last moment there was one intrigue: will Vimpelcom get a 3G license, known for its tense relationship with regulatory authorities ? It is no coincidence that its general director Alexander Izosimov publicly stated that "we are more than others happy for victory." However, as already noted, VimpelCom got the least cleared frequencies.
Before the start of contests with the distribution of 3G frequencies, there was a scandal: one of the largest regional mobile operators SMARTS was suspended from participation in them, which is already contesting this decision in court. The reason was the debt of SMARTS to the tax authorities, although VimpelCom and MTS also had similar proceedings with the tax authorities. And during the announcement of the results of the competitions, the chairman of the competitive commission Alexander Krupnov said that one of the losing companies tried to conduct individual work with the commission members. He did not specify what kind of company he was, but Alexander Savelyev, chairman of the legal center of the International Bar Association, was sure that it was about SMARTS, “whose leadership is known for its assertive character.”
There should be another contest ahead in the frequency of 2.1 GHz, but the winner is also predictable there. This is the Sky Link CDMA standard mobile operator, which already has at its disposal these frequencies for conditional commercial use.
The competitions took into account factors such as a set of licenses for communication services, the term of work in the telecommunications market, etc. As a result, the victory of the Big Three was initially predicted. True, until the last moment there was one intrigue: will Vimpelcom get a 3G license, known for its tense relationship with regulatory authorities ? It is no coincidence that its general director Alexander Izosimov publicly stated that "we are more than others happy for victory." However, as already noted, VimpelCom got the least cleared frequencies.
Before the start of contests with the distribution of 3G frequencies, there was a scandal: one of the largest regional mobile operators SMARTS was suspended from participation in them, which is already contesting this decision in court. The reason was the debt of SMARTS to the tax authorities, although VimpelCom and MTS also had similar proceedings with the tax authorities. And during the announcement of the results of the competitions, the chairman of the competitive commission Alexander Krupnov said that one of the losing companies tried to conduct individual work with the commission members. He did not specify what kind of company he was, but Alexander Savelyev, chairman of the legal center of the International Bar Association, was sure that it was about SMARTS, “whose leadership is known for its assertive character.”
There should be another contest ahead in the frequency of 2.1 GHz, but the winner is also predictable there. This is the Sky Link CDMA standard mobile operator, which already has at its disposal these frequencies for conditional commercial use.