Soyuz-Telecom, a WiMAX operator little known until now, announced last month the extension of its coverage to Vsevolozhsk, a city in the St. Petersburg region. The company, founded in 2007, now covers 17 small cities across the country. It has not, however, disclosed its number of subscribers.
Russian entrepreneur Theophan Bondarenko owns a majority stake in Soyuz-Telecom, which, in spite of its apparently modest means, appears to be emerging as Russia’s second largest WiMAX provider after Scartel (Yota).
Soyuz-Telecom, which owns licenses to operate in 80 of the country’s 83 regions, announced it would deploy its WiMAX networks in 2 or 3 new cities each month. It aims to cover 500 cities of less than 100,000 inhabitants. The company initiated this schedule last year, but due to legal problems, progress has slowed.
The operator works under the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard in the frequency range of 2.5–2.7 GHz. It places at least one base station in each city, which enables it to service up to 500 users simultaneously.
Soyuz-Telecom offers subscribers several types of equipment, from WiMAX routers to branded USB-modems, such as the Seowon SWU-3220AN, at 2,500 rubles each (approx. $89). A monthly subscription with unlimited broadband access costs just 575 rubles (approx. $20), almost three times less than the price charged by Yota.
Soyuz-Telecom’s management currently plans to use only WiMAX, causing some to be skeptical about the company’s approach. “Small companies working on regional markets with just one technology are likely to meet problems in the middle term,” explained Ivan Sharkov of Sky Link, a mobile broadband operator. “Now frequencies and technologies can be combined in several ways, and the more combinations a company offers, the more flexibly and efficiently it can work.”
Sources: ComNews.ru, Kommersant – St. Petersburg
