Having been one of the key service providers pushing WiMAX early since 2008, Scartel's Yota was steadily growing its subscriber base of WiMAX customers. In a very short time, they ramped up to what they last reported was 375,000 subscribers. The company had mentioned that they were expecting to get to 500,000 subscribers fairly quickly.
This article is citing 500,000 subscribers. They reached 25 million people in Moscow and St. Petersburg, giving Yota about a 2 percent penetration rate against people covered by its network. Yota had also quickly turned profitable.
The 15 cities it had planned to expand its WiMAX network into will instead be built with LTE. Moscow and St. Petersburg and the three other cities where WiMAX now operates are to be converted to LTE by the end of 2011 - in about a year and a half from now. Yota used to be the WiMAX service provider with the most subscribers, until it was surpassed by Clearwire in the US last quarter.
One question that remains open is whether or not Yota will plan on coverting its upcoming WiMAX networks in Belarus, Peru, and Nicaragua from WiMAX to LTE. In these countries, the considerations may be different depending on the regulatory situation.
The 15 cities it had planned to expand its WiMAX network into will instead be built with LTE. Moscow and St. Petersburg and the three other cities where WiMAX now operates are to be converted to LTE by the end of 2011 - in about a year and a half from now. Yota used to be the WiMAX service provider with the most subscribers, until it was surpassed by Clearwire in the US last quarter.
One question that remains open is whether or not Yota will plan on coverting its upcoming WiMAX networks in Belarus, Peru, and Nicaragua from WiMAX to LTE. In these countries, the considerations may be different depending on the regulatory situation.
