In Russia, Rostelecom is planning on deploying LTE in Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympic Games will be held. Launching cutting edge mobile networks in cities where Olympic Games will be held is becoming commonplace, as seen with Beijing and Vancouver. MegaFon also intends to put an LTE network up in Sochi. The State RF Commission was supposed to make a decision about the licenses on June 2, 2010, but this has been delayed since the Russian military made it known that it intends to build its own 4G network in Russia using 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz spectrum.
In addition, Russia's regulatory body seems to be pushing the idea that Rostelecom and MegaFon should implement RAN sharing because it is unreasonable to have two LTE networks in Sochi. Perhaps this has more to do with ensuring that the Russian military has enough spectrum for its own network.
Yota, which has existing coverage in Sochi (among other cities) with its WiMAX network, is currently in disupute with the Russian regulator over whether or not it is allowed to deploy LTE. It is unclear if Yota is looking to deploy TD-LTE in its existing TDD spectrum it had intended to use to expand its WiMAX network to other cities or FD-LTE in separate FDD spectrum. It is possible that the real reason behind denying Yota the right to build an LTE network has to do with the Russian military's LTE goals as well.
In addition, Russia's regulatory body seems to be pushing the idea that Rostelecom and MegaFon should implement RAN sharing because it is unreasonable to have two LTE networks in Sochi. Perhaps this has more to do with ensuring that the Russian military has enough spectrum for its own network.
Yota, which has existing coverage in Sochi (among other cities) with its WiMAX network, is currently in disupute with the Russian regulator over whether or not it is allowed to deploy LTE. It is unclear if Yota is looking to deploy TD-LTE in its existing TDD spectrum it had intended to use to expand its WiMAX network to other cities or FD-LTE in separate FDD spectrum. It is possible that the real reason behind denying Yota the right to build an LTE network has to do with the Russian military's LTE goals as well.
