Russia presses ahead with developing 5G, but allocation of frequencies needs to be resolved first

Late last, year Russia’s leading mobile phone operators, Rostelecom, Megafon, Vimpelcom and MTS, announced plans to create a joint venture to overcome the challenges of creating 5G networks, such as clearing up the frequency band required for their operation.

5G plans have been heavily discussed in Russia for the last few years, but until recently, it wasn’t clear if new-generation networks would be developed by a consortium of existing operators or a designated operator would be formed to focus solely on 5G.

The announcement of the consortium of operators stipulates that the member companies will share an allocated frequency range, but won’t function as a designated 5G operator, with existing operators developing their own fifth-generation networks.

The venture’s main goal is working out the most suitable procedure for allocating and vacating frequencies that could be used for the rolling out of 5G networks, Frederic Vanoosthuyze, chief technology officer at MegaFon, told Computer Weekly. “Long Term Evolution (LTE) commercial networks have come close to the limit of their spectral efficiency,” he said.

“The basic speed that a base station’s single sector can maintain on a 10MHz band is 75 Mbps. Just as it’s the case with LTE, in 5G networks, further increasing data transfer speed is only possible if the frequency range is increased.”

According to Vanoosthuyze, 5G networks’ potential can fully be realised only if at least a 100 MHz uninterrupted frequency range is allocated for their development. “The joint venture aims to resolve this issue by operating as a single negotiator with the regulator and agencies that currently own frequencies,” he said. He added that the joint venture doesn’t plan to build an infrastructure or base stations.

A spokesperson for Vimpelcom confirmed that the operators’ own infrastructures will be used for developing 5G networks, while the joint venture will focus solely on vacating frequencies and launching 5G in their networks using the Multi-Operator Core Networks mode until a required frequency band for building their own networks has been allocated.

One issue that is yet to be cleared up is what equipment will be used in Russia’s 5G networks. Over the last few years the Russian government has been pushing for locally manufactured equipment, pointing out potential security concerns linked to important equipment.

Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Element company and mobile phone operator MTS recently announced plans to manufacture local equipment for 5G networks based on Open Radio Access Network (RAN).

However, other operators are cautious about open-architecture solutions. “Technically, the adoption of open-architecture solutions could dramatically change the power balance in the network equipment market,” said the Vimpelcom spokesperson. “However, at this time, there are almost no Open RAN products in the market that could complete with traditional solutions. This is also proven by comparative tests we’ve run.”

Open RAN offers a concept whereby a base station is built with open-source software and standardised hardware, such as, x86 architecture, according to Vanoosthuyze at MegaFon. “Using that a telecom operator builds applicable network elements, and adapts program code to suit its requirements and goals, basically becoming an integrator of complex telecom solutions.”

“We are closely studying options for the possible use of Open RAN products,” he said. “A number of solutions are currently being tested, and we are ready to provide our sandbox for testing local and foreign solutions in this area.”