OREANDA-NEWS. Mobile TeleSystems PJSC (“MTS” or “the Company” – NYSE: MBT; MOEX: MTSS), the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, announces that as a result of the online auction held by The Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Media (Roskmonadzor) MTS has been allocated licenses to provision mobile telecommunications services in the GSM standard, LTE standard and its subsequent modifications in the 1710-1785 MHz and 1805-1880 MHz ranges in Amur Region, North-Ossetia-Alania, Orenburg Region, Perm Krai and in Komi-Perm District.

For the first time in Russia, Roskomnadzor held an online auction of frequencies, which lasted from September 29, 2015, through October 03, 2015. Results of the tender and costs of the licenses are indicated in the table below.

Lot number Region Spectrum allocated Price
3 Republic of North Ossetia –Alania 1748.2-1755.0/1843.2-1850.0
1764.6-1769.8/1859.6-1864.8		 RUB 275.9 mln
5 Orenburg Region 1725.0-1727.8/1820.0-1822.8
1748.4-1755.0/1843.4-1850.0		 RUB 587.6 mln
6 Perm Krai excluding Komi-Perm District 1727.0-1735.0/1822.0-1830.0
1750.0-1751.8/1845.0-1846.8
1769.0-1770.0/1864.0-1865.0		 RUB 744.6 mln
8 Komi-Perm District within Perm Krai 1769.0-1770.0/1864.0-1865.0 RUB 0.5 mln
10 Amur Region 1725.0-1729.6/1820.0-1824.6
1746.4-1755.0/1841.4-1850.0		 RUB 303.3 mln


Mr. Andrei Ushatskiy, MTS Vice President, Chief Technology and Information Officer, remarked, “We welcome the first auction for frequencies to be held in Russia. It is a universally accepted practice to distribute frequencies through a transparent and competitive process. The introduction of this practice in Russia will stimulate development of state-of-the-art data networks and make high-speed mobile Internet access more broadly available. Since we first received our LTE license in 2012, MTS has been fulfilling licensing requirements ahead of schedule and has already launched LTE networks in 78 of Russia’s regions. With additional spectrum, we will be able to enhance existing networks and deliver higher speeds and greater coverage on new tech-neutral LTE networks, while reducing construction costs. A typical base station provisioning LTE-1800 provides four times greater coverage of a similar base station in the LTE-2600 range. By combining our LTE-2600 and LTE-1800 spectrum through Carrier Aggregation, we can increase peak speeds up to 187 Mb/s.”

Previously, in June 2015, MTS signed agreements with the vendors to purchase multiband and technology neutral network equipment for the roll-out of LTE-Advanced networks. In 2015, MTS plans to launch tech-neutral LTE-2600 networks in 19 regions in Russia and LTE-Advanced networks with aggregation across two and three carriers in 15 regions.