OREANDA-NEWS The "Big Four" operators have reached an agreement on the joint development of the fifth generation network, which, in particular, may provide for the creation of a single infrastructure 5G operator. This was stated by Deputy Head of the Ministry of Communications Oleg Ivanov.

"The work on the development of the 5G concept is completed, it was done by the research Institute "Radio" very high quality. I gathered all the Vice-presidents of the companies, and NIIR reported this concept to them, and we discussed it. Then we gave it to the "LTE Union" and ANO "Digital economy" for discussion. The discussion is still ongoing, but at the end of last week, an official letter was received from the leadership of the "LTE Union" that the operators agreed on the infrastructure operator," he said, pointing out that the agreement was reached among the operators of the "Big Four".

On Monday, at the meeting of the state Commission on radio frequencies (SCR), it was decided to allocate separate radio frequency bands in the ranges of 4800-4990 MHz and 27.1-27.5 GHz to create pilot zones of the fifth generation networks in order to implement projects in certain sectors of the economy to an unlimited number of people. As Ivanov stressed, the allocation of frequencies to an unlimited number of people is associated with the preservation of the opportunity to develop the 5G network if operators do not reach a final agreement. "We have left this opportunity. Suddenly they will not agree, this will not happen - we will still develop 5G", - he explained.

At the same time, the draft decision of the SCR planned to issue frequencies in the range of 3400-4200 MHz, 4400-4900 MHz, 25.25-29.5 GHz to an unlimited number of persons. "In the draft decision was a lot of frequency bands. Unfortunately, there are only two, because the rest is necessary to carry out the conversion, because they are all busy," - said Ivanov.

According to Ivanov, the Ministry has created a special working group that will look for potentially possible to release the radio frequency band. "Operators agreed to consider the possibility of combining efforts to release and use the range of 3.4-3.8 GHz", - commented on the information on the creation of the infrastructure operator representative of MTS.

At the same time, the press service of Tele2 told that the company considers it appropriate to create a consortium for the construction of 5g networks and plans to be a consumer of its services. "This model will allow participants to share operating costs for infrastructure development. Given the low cost of communication services in Russia and the fact that 5G technology is unlikely to immediately become mass, it makes sense to save on costs and build a network for several players," the representative of the operator said.

In a press-service of "MegaFon" reported that the operator stands for any variants of cooperation of operators for the joint development of elements of 5G networks. "First, capital investments will be disproportionately large compared with the networks of previous generations. Secondly, it is necessary to take into account another important aspect - the load of the spectrum in the band 3400 - 3800 MHz. The task of releasing the spectrum will have to be solved together, actually forming a collective negotiator to work with existing users," the company explained.

Nevertheless, MegaFon stressed that the 4800 - 4990 MHz frequencies issued on Monday are not a priority for the operator and can be considered for the development of 5G as a last resort.