OREANDA-NEWS. December 5, 2012. MegaFon OJSC, Mobile TeleSystems OJSC, VimpelCom OJSC (“Beeline” trademark) and Rostelecom OJSC have announced their joint project to provide mobile communication services on such highways of federal significance as Baikal, Kaspy, Ural and Ussuri of totally 9,000 km long. It’s been planned to start the construction of the base stations along the highways in Q1 2013; implementation of the project will take up to nine months. Estimated value of the works to cover 100% of the biggest highways is 3.2 billion rubles.

The highways of Baikal, Caspy, Ural and Ussuri run through twenty regions of Russia from Moscow down to Vladivostok and form so-called travel corridors of North-South and West-East. The project has been activated under the Government Executive Order of the Russian Federation of May 5th, 2012; its implementation will ensure a full mobile coverage to the key automobile highways of the country.

For achievement of complete coverage the carriers will install over 200 new base stations in addition to the existing telecommunication infrastructure. According to the work plan, each stakeholder will build own tower sites at the approved land-plots to later utilize them for joint installation of the equipment of the four operators. In such a manner they will arrange mobile carpeting on the entire length of the highways. The operators intend to share costs on the tower sites on a parity basis. The government will take on the costs on the power supply for the communications infrastructure.

MTS, VimpelCom, MegaFon and Rostelecom will act as the coordinators of the works in the regions. The operators have developed the targeted program of building of the tower sites and the preliminary engineering solutions; they sent applications for frequencies for the base stations and coordinate their connection to the electric grid and have begun the registration of rent of the land-plots hosting the infrastructure of telecommunications.

Elaboration and follow-up of the project have been complicated by specific character of the regions and remote position of highways deep in the hinterland. Mobile telecommunications along the highways of Russia is a part and parcel of the federal plan of complete deployment of the Urgent Response System GLONASS designed to ensure safety and security on highways and mitigate any road traffic emergency aftermath through rapid response to any accident and delivery of care to survivors.

“The new joint project is unique for three reasons. First and foremost, it will be realized within the shortest time possible being rather labor-intensive and expensive in terms of finance, technologies and infrastructure resources. Under such circumstances, this project can be carried out only if the four biggest national telecom operators pull their efforts all together, which is undoubtedly a significant precedent for the telecom sector and the whole economy. Secondly, the coverage of the largest national highways will facilitate the development of innovative technology solutions based on GLONASS in particular. Thirdly, successful completion of the project will dramatically change the map of communication coverage for the Russian hinterland and improve the opportunities for small and mid-size business, as well as the comfort and safety for the population there,” says Igor Shirokov, head of infrastructure in MegaFon.

“Absolute coverage of the highways is an important social goal to improve the economic development of the Russian regions and ensure a comprehensive safety and security for motor travelers. This is a challenging goal with account of complex countryside and natural environment, remote position of telecom infrastructure away from the power supply and populated localities. Although, I am sure that based on the available experience of the private/government partnership the project will be implemented with the utmost effect and within the shortest time possible,” said Andrey Ushatsky, vice president for technology of MTS.

“Cooperation between the state and the operators for the sake of important and challenging task to provide radio coverage along the national highways is the most effective and well-timed approach. We have already a successful experience of such private/government partnership received from the mobile coverage along the Amur Highway. This will assure to be confident in the success of this project implementation. Under the joint resources and efforts we will quickly and in good manner resolve the problem of coverage for the principal highways of the country and gear up the development of the transport infrastructure, substantially improve the convenience and safety of traffic,” said Igor Parfenov, vice president for technology of VimpelCom.

“Millions of drivers and travelers await reliable coverage along the entire length of the highways. On the one hand, this will keep them in touch with their friends and families. On the other hand, the joint project of the operators will ensure a safe and secure traffic and preserve people’s lives and well-being. The joint efforts and resources of the biggest national operators will ensure solution of the nationwide task to provide coverage along the key federal highways within the shortest time possible,” said Ivan Zima, vice president and chief technical officer of Rostelecom.

Early in October 2011, MTS, VimpelCom and MegaFon accomplished their joint construction of network to provide mobile communications for the Amur Highway (Chita — Khabarovsk). In 2011, the Big3 carriers built 102 towers of communications to mount the base stations there: 32 base stations were built by MTS, 32 base stations by MegaFon and 38 base stations by VimpelCom. Totally the Big3 mounted on those towers 283 base stations; the project partners — the electric grid companies — installed over 500 km of power lines. Rostelecom installed, under the construction activities for the ground telecom infrastructure along the Amur Highway, more than 450 km of fiber optic communication lines and provided telecom services in 70 towns.