A network of sonnets is developing. Sonnet (cellular operator) Cellular network sonnet

I remember when in the TV game “What? Where? When?" The smartest connoisseurs were given the “Golden SONNET” (an eternally free telephone with the right to be passed on by inheritance), many connoisseurs were jealous. But even then, skeptics, looking at all this, muttered “nothing lasts forever” and “we’ll wait and see.” We lived and saw: yes, nothing lasts forever, and especially “SONNET” - even more so.

On December 11, the Sistema Telecom company announced its intention to soon sell its stake in Personal Communications CJSC, which provides communication services under the SONET brand. It was also decided to stop developing the infrastructure of the SONET network.

Answering questions from a correspondent for the Sotovik website, Sistema Telecom President Alexander Goncharuk called SONET an “incomprehensible” project and literally said the following: we will sell SONET! I won’t tell who, it’s not my secret. In the near future, as soon as we agree on the parameters of the deal. I think it's a matter of months. This will be an amount equal to all the costs of building the network and no more, since we consider this project unpromising."

The announcement of the sale of SONET itself did not come as a surprise to analysts, but few expected that the decision would be made so soon.

Cellular network SONET began operating in Moscow on August 1, 1998. SONET began to provide a new type of service for those times telephone communication— wireless subscriber access WLL (Wireless Local Loop), implemented on the basis of the latest digital technology with code division of CDMA channels. Having begun its development from remote areas of the capital, the network rapidly expanded and by the end of 1999 it covered the entire territory of Moscow and the immediate Moscow region.

Already in September 1999, when MTU-Inform invested $17 million in the development of the SONET fixed subscriber radio access (CDMA) network, Alexander Goncharuk reported that the company’s lack of a mobile communications license made it difficult to recoup these costs.

Then, two years ago, Sistema Telecom, together with MTU-Inform, studied options for getting out of the current situation. Apparently, the process was “accelerated” by the German shareholders of Sistema-Telecom.

Alexander Goncharuk himself admitted that the company had wanted to get rid of SONET for a long time: “Even when this project came into our ownership, it would have been possible to close it down, but at that moment we would have lost money. Instead, we preferred the scenario in which limited development should have ended with a sale. Although, in general, CDMA technology is promising and its development is being started, for example, by MCC and Delta-Telecom.

Despite all the “prospects” of CDMA, the fate of SONET may also befall other operators providing fixed subscriber radio access. According to Gazeta.Ru, in the future Sistema-Telecom may also get rid of another “unpromising” cellular enterprise - the Moscow Cellular Communications company, which provides services in the outdated analog standard NMT-450.

Reason for abolition Location Industry Website

Began its activities on August 17, 1998 and completed in 2004. Specialized primarily in relatively inexpensive unlimited mobile communications. The general director was Mikhail Valerievich Susov. The parent company is AFK Sistema. The number of subscribers when the network was closed was about 100,000. Subscribers were provided with new telephone sets, as well as telephone numbers that changed during the transition.

As of May 1, 2005, 92.5% of the shares belonged to Sky Link CJSC, 7.5% to Qualcomm Inc.

In March 2008, the board of directors of Sky Link decided to reorganize Sonet CJSC in the form of a merger with Sky Link CJSC.

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Excerpt characterizing the Sonnet (cellular operator)

– Surely you will command it yourself? – said Julie, slyly and mockingly exchanging glances with the militiaman.
The militiaman in the presence of Pierre was no longer so caustique, and his face expressed bewilderment at what Julie’s smile meant. Despite his absent-mindedness and good nature, Pierre’s personality immediately stopped all attempts at ridicule in his presence.
“No,” Pierre answered laughing, looking around his large, fat body. “It’s too easy for the French to hit me, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to get on the horse...
Among the people being selected for the subject of conversation, Julie's company ended up with the Rostovs.
“They say their affairs are very bad,” said Julie. - And he is so stupid - the count himself. The Razumovskys wanted to buy his house and his property near Moscow, and all this drags on. He is treasured.
“No, it seems that the sale will take place one of these days,” someone said. – Although now it’s crazy to buy anything in Moscow.
- From what? – said Julie. – Do you really think that there is a danger for Moscow?
- Why are you going?
- I? That's strange. I’m going because... well, because everyone is going, and then I’m not Joan of Arc or an Amazon.
- Well, yes, yes, give me some more rags.
“If he manages to get things done, he can pay off all his debts,” the militiaman continued about Rostov.
- A good old man, but very pauvre sire [bad]. And why do they live here for so long? They had long wanted to go to the village. Does Natalie seem to be well now? – Julie asked Pierre, smiling slyly.
“They are expecting a younger son,” said Pierre. “He joined Obolensky’s Cossacks and went to Bila Tserkva. A regiment is being formed there. And now they transferred him to my regiment and are waiting for him every day. The Count has long wanted to go, but the Countess will never agree to leave Moscow until her son arrives.
“I saw them the other day at the Arkharovs’. Natalie looked prettier and cheerful again. She sang one romance. How easy it is for some people!
-What's going on? – Pierre asked displeasedly. Julie smiled.
“You know, Count, that knights like you only exist in the novels of Madame Suza.”
- Which knight? From what? – Pierre asked, blushing.
- Well, come on, dear Count, c "est la fable de tout Moscou. Je vous admire, ma parole d" honneur. [all of Moscow knows this. Really, I'm surprised at you.]

The idea of ​​creating a?Sonnet? arose from the general director of the Moscow alternative operator? MTU-Inform? Mikhail Aizman. ?At the WorldTelecom-95 exhibition he became very interested in the recently emerging CDMA technology. Then we agreed with the shareholders of MTU-Inform, ? says Alexander Sandomirsky, at that time the first deputy general director of MTU-Inform.

Russian market cellular communications in 1995 it was just emerging. Less than 0.1% of Russians used mobile communications. ? It was a creative time, operators were constantly coming up with something, and almost all cellular communication standards were represented in our country: AMPS, NMT-450, GSM?, ? recalls the first deputy general director of ?Sistema Telecom? Alexander Vronets.

Compared to them, the standard that interested Eisman was very young; the first CDMA network in the world appeared in 1995, when the GSM standard was already popular. The International Telecommunication Union recommended GSM and NMT standards for development in Europe. And CDMA developed primarily in Southeast Asia and America: for example, the American operator Verizon Wireless uses this standard, serving 43.8 million subscribers today and bringing in 24.4 billion USD per year. Many experts believed that CDMA was more promising in many respects? sound quality, level of protection against eavesdropping, etc.

In November 1995, according to the website?Sonnet?,?MTU-Inform? founded the company OJSC?Personal Communications? (?PeKom?), which was supposed to build a CDMA network. As follows from the GDR prospectus of AFK Sistema, among the founders of PeKom? were top managers of the main shareholder? MTU-Inform? ? Moscow city telephone network. The then general director of MGTS Vladimir Lagutin and his deputies Semyon Rabovsky and Said Alimbekov in total received more than 20% of PeKom.

In 1997, ?PeKom? received a license to provide radiotelephone communication services in the CDMA standard at 800 MHz frequencies. The license extended to the Moscow, Yaroslavl, Tver, Vladimir and Tula regions. In Moscow? Sonnet? ? from the words?cell phone? and?network? ? English Net? earned it within a year.

Bad start
Luck has turned away from the ?Sonnet? immediately after his birth. The network went live on August 1, 1998, 17 days before the crisis. ? Is this why we stalled for several months? there were simply no clients?, ? says the technical director, and later the general director of ?Sonnet? Vladimir Morozyuk.

In dire need of funds? Sonnet? turned to subscribers for help. Immediately after the 1998 crisis, the company launched a tariff? Anti-crisis? with an impressive initial payment (about 2500 USD), after paying which the subscriber could talk for the rest of his life without restrictions within the Moscow region for 25 USD per month. Competitors? Sonnet? There were no such tariff plans at that time. ? Investments in Anti-Crisis paid for themselves in less than a year?, ? says the senior partner of the company?Creditconsulting? Yuri Istomin.

In total, according to the former general director of the company, Mikhail Susov, 2000-3000 subscribers connected to the tariff, and the company received about 5 MUSD for the construction of the network. And by the summer of 1999, the company announced that it had managed to gain 10,000 subscribers. According to ACM-Consulting, another non-GSM operator, Moscow Cellular Communications, already had 87,000 by that time. MTS in Moscow by that time already had 275,000 subscribers, VimpelCom? ? 198,000.

Wrong size
The growth in the number of subscribers has turned into ?Sonnet? into the problem. The network was originally built on equipment from the American company Qualcomm? developer of CDMA technology. ?PeKom? built the network on debt? a trade credit of 15 MUSD was provided by Qualcomm itself. Repay this loan?PeKom? started in 1999? from his own funds received from the first subscribers, and, according to Susov, paid most of it. But a year after the launch, it became clear that the capacity of Qualcomm equipment did not allow it to serve more than 10,000 subscribers.

?This is a disaster, because the demand for Sonnet's services is high?, ? Susov said at one of the press conferences. ?PeKom? announced new tender. By December 2000, a network was built at a cost of 24 MUSD using equipment from Lucent Technologies (also under a trade credit scheme). ?PeKom? reported that he had fully paid off this loan. Total investment in the network?Sonnet? amounted, according to former company executives, to 50 MUSD.

Despite the fact that in 1999 ?PeKomu? it was necessary to completely update the equipment, in 2001 the company showed its first profit (for more details, see the table). ? It was a very stable, profitable business?, ? says Mikhail Susov. But the profitability of the business was constantly supported by its main shareholder, MTU-Inform. It was the main supplier of telecommunications capacity ( mobile traffic) for?Sonnet?. This item accounts for about 20% of the operating expenses of cellular companies. "MTU-Inform", according to Susov's recollections, provided its services on credit, without insisting on immediate return. As can be seen from the company's balance sheet, in 1998 ?PeKom? owed related structures 152 million rubles, in 1999? 60 million rubles in 2000? 364 million rubles in 2001? RUB 206 million

Helped? MTU-Inform? not only to the “Sonnet”, but also to its individual owners. As follows from the prospectus for the GDR issue of AFK Sistema, in July and August 2000 Lagutin, Rabovsky and Alimbekov sold their shares in PeKom. companies?MTU-Inform? (14%) and?MTU-Intel? (7%) for 9.17 MUSD. As a result, the holding company Sistema-Telecom, which by that time included MTU-Inform? and?MTU-Intel?, became the owner of more than 80% of the shares of?PeCom?. ?For the development of Sonnet, investments were needed, but which investors were private individuals?? ? explains the deputy general director of ?Systems Telecom? Alexander Vronets shareholders' decision?Sonnet?. Former top manager of one of the?subsidiaries? ?Systems? claims that Lagutin, Rabovsky and Alimbekov at one time bought out shares in the authorized capital for symbolic amounts. Founders?Sonnet? didn’t talk to Vedomosti? about this theme.

Under permanent ban
Adherence to a standard not officially recognized in Russia played with the ?Sonnet? a cruel joke. On the eve of the network launch, in June 1998, the State Communications Committee suddenly changed the license conditions for CDMA-800? now it was written in them that the operators provide “radio access services?”. From now on?PeKom? and other operators could only deal with fixed-line communications.

As a result, several dozen CDMA-800 operators, including Sonet, formally ceased to be mobile. ? The situation turned out to be absurd: it’s as if a person bought a plane, but he was only allowed to use it in the city as a taxi?, ? recalls Susov. According to the new procedure, operators were required to enter into contracts for subscriber services at a specific address. People took such phones out of the house at their own peril and risk: a policeman who checked the permission of the phone could well confiscate it. But it was impossible to accuse the operator of illegal activities, says Susov.

In 1999, the State Communications Committee issued another order according to which only CDMA-800 fixed telephone sets could be imported into Russia. According to Susov, mobile handsets came to Russia almost exclusively as “gray” ones. ways. In April 2000, a new misfortune: the State Commission on Radio Frequencies (SCRF) decided by 2010 to transfer frequencies in the 800 MHz range to digital television.

Subsequently, the?Sonnet? More and more problems arose with the Ministry of Communications. In October and November 2002, Gossvyaznadzor suspended the license of ?PeKoma? for several days. for non-compliance with?fixedness?. ? Have we never had an assistant in the person of a communications regulator?, ? Susov complains. These problems hit the operator's well-being painfully: according to Susov, banks refused? Sonnet? in loans, citing the fact that the company is constantly under threat of closure.

At one of the press conferences, Minister of Communications Leonid Reiman explained the reason for his dislike for the CDMA-800 standard in general and for? Sonnet? in particular: ?The standard is good? the range is bad?. The Ministry of Communications considered CDMA-800 as an alternative to classic wired telephone communications in hard-to-reach places, said the then chairman of the State Committee for Communications, Alexander Krupnov. ? We never seriously considered CDMA networks in the 800 band, since due to the small frequency band they could not have a large subscriber base?, ? explains Krupnov.

Sonnet? haven't come to terms with the loss of his?mobility? and tried to cancel the resolution of the Ministry of Communications through the Antimonopoly Ministry. In 2002, the MAP recognized the decision of the SCRF to close networks in the 800 band as contrary to the law on competition? and ordered the commission to eliminate the violations. Then? Sonnet? managed to achieve that the Moscow Arbitration Court invalidated the request of the Ministry of Communications to? fix? companies. And in December 2002, the Ministry of Communications changed its opinion on the CDMA standard. Reiman signed an order on the federal cellular mobile communications network of the IMT-MC-450 standard in the 450 MHz frequency range, which recognized CDMA as a federal standard, but in the 450 MHz range. On its basis, outdated NMT-450 networks should be modernized.

Skynet is more important
In May 2003, ?Sistema Telecom? announced further development of ?Sonnet? unpromising and fired the then general director of the company, Vladimir Morozyuk. ? This decision was on the verge of the unexpected?, ? admits Morozyuk. But the first deputy general director of ?Systems Telecom? Alexander Vronets calls the liquidation of ?Sonnet? ?conscious decision? ? in the 800 MHz range, the development of CDMA was considered unpromising. The bet was made on the company “Sky Link”, to which subscribers of “Sonnet” were asked to switch. ?Sky Link? ? is this some kind of umbrella under which we have gathered NMT and CDMA operators?, ? Vronets explains.

Having decided to?turn off? ?Sonnet?, ?System? wrote off 19.3 MUSD as losses. The losses, as stated in the AFK reports, were attributable to goodwill ?PeKoma? ? reputation, brand, etc. In the summer of 2004, ?System? appointed CEO of ?Sky Link? and ?PeKoma? Raisa Rozinov. At the same time, it was announced that from mid-September 2004 new connections would be stopped and a program would begin to transfer 80,000 Sonetov subscribers to the Sky Link network. Last day of work?Sonnet? became March 28, 2005.

?Merger with Sky Link was the best development option for Sonet?, ? says Andrey Beskorovainy, deputy head of the Federal Communications Agency. ? Sonnet initially had the wrong composition of shareholders, they forgot to include the “right” people, hence the operator’s troubles?, ? says Gennady Kiryushin, general director and co-owner of the Volga region operator SMARTS. At the same time, in his opinion, the operator’s business model was successful. ? It really was a very effective business that brought good financial returns?, ? says Vronets.

Alfa Bank analyst Svetlana Sukhanova believes that? Sonnet? was quite a controversial project. In her opinion, if you look at its financial efficiency, the company can hardly be called successful: accumulated investments exceeded accumulated EBITDA for 1999-2003. On the other hand, adds Sukhanova, the?Sonnet? had the most loyal subscribers, and the features of CDMA-800 technology made it possible to offer unlimited plans, while practically not overloading the network. Thus, the company constantly provided its shareholders with a stable financial flow.

?By the time of its closure, Sonnet was profitable, but due to administrative restrictions imposed on CDMA-800, it had no prospects for independent development?, ? says the CEO of ?Systems Telecom? Vladimir Lagutin. According to him, the ?System? could not simultaneously develop three cellular operators of different standards, which is why the decision was made to join ?PeCom? in ?Sky Link?. Although the operating activities of ?PeKoma? did not recoup all investments of the main shareholder, taking into account the valuation of the company when contributing to the authorized capital? Sky Link? The project turned out to be profitable, notes Lagutin.

Although? Sky Link? and ?Sonnet? work in the same standard, equipment?Sonnet? will have to be dismantled, these are the features of the technology. However? Sky Link? subscribers can get ?Sonnet?. They were not only the most highly profitable on the Moscow market (one user, according to Sonet?, brought in about 70 USD monthly), but also the most loyal. In 2001, according to Susov, the subscriber churn rate of Sonet? was half that of GSM operators. ?Sonnet? constantly introduced interesting tariff plans, launched new services and monitored very carefully subscriber services. ?Otherwise our customers wouldn't be so loyal?, ? Vronets explains.

How to save a subscriber
Now facing the successor?Sonnet? ? ?Sky Link? The task is to get subscribers of ?Sonnet?. But some of them greeted the news of the network's closure with hostility. ? It turns out that we should just throw away our cell phones, for which we once paid a lot of money, and buy Skylink handsets?? ? the subscriber is perplexed? Sonnet? Sergey Krakhmalov. Yuri Istomin before closing?Sonnet? transferred to ?Sky Link?, but abandoned it? not satisfied with the quality: ? The connection was lost, often you couldn’t hear the interlocutor? As a result, he took an unlimited tariff for voice communication? Beeline? and plans to use ?Sky Link? only for mobile Internet.

Users blame the operator for long queues in the only office where translations from ?Sonnet? in “Sky Link”, and on the scant information about transition programs. The latter circumstance was actively used by scammers who began offering subscribers ?Sonnet? on Internet forums, buy contracts and phones from the outgoing operator for almost nothing. A special website was also created, which offered assistance to those who did not want to waste time in line to re-register from one network to another. For 2,800 rubles. The intermediaries took on all the troubles themselves.

?Perhaps not everything was perfect for us, but there were no precedents for closing such a large cellular network?, ? Rozinova believes. According to her, “Sonnet” subscribers who switched to “Sky Link” will completely retain the numbers, tariff plans and services they used. Each subscriber who changed the network before February 28 was given a free Skylink? phone for 150 USD. Anyone who wanted to get a more expensive device had to pay the missing amount.

The situation with the quality of communication, according to Rozinova, is explained by the fact that throughput The networks are already at their limit. ?By May we will increase its capacity, and the situation will return to normal?, ? calms Rozinov. Besides, technical capabilities do not allow more than 30-35 people to be transferred from network to network at the same time, explains the head of Sky Link. According to Vladimir Lagutin from Sistema Telecom, already about 60,000 of the 90,000 subscribers of Sonnet? moved to ?Sky Link?. Until April 25, subscribers of ?Sonnet? will be able to connect to?Sky Link? on preferential terms. Total for?Sky Link? There are now more than 90,000 subscribers in the Moscow region.

The Sonnet network is developing

Petr Chachin

Joint Stock Company “Personal Communications” is expanding the range of wireless services in Moscow and the Moscow region. subscriber access, implemented on the basis of digital technology with code division of channels CDMA. “The Sonet cellular network (this is a trademark of the Personal Communications company) in addition to the standard set of communication services - the ability to conduct intra-zonal, local, long-distance and international telephone conversations, use fax and modem with a guaranteed data transfer rate of 14.4 kbit/s - provides its clients with additional services, such as call forwarding, call waiting and transfer, three-way communication and call barring,” said the general director of this company, Mikhail Susov, at a press conference in Moscow.

Mikhail Susov, General Director

"Personal Communications" company

Fixed cellular communications provided by the Sonet network also have a number of advantages compared to cellular communications of other standards. Firstly, CDMA technology is characterized by efficient use of the radio spectrum and tens of times greater specific subscriber capacity, which can have a positive impact on tariff policy. Secondly, CDMA eliminates the possibility of unauthorized access and eavesdropping, and also provides better noise immunity. Thirdly, CDMA technology is characterized by low radio transmitter power, which determines its relative safety for the human body. In addition, it is very important that Sonet will use the powerful transport and telephone networks of the founder of the Personal Communications company, the MTU-Inform company.

The construction of the Sonet cellular network was launched primarily in remote areas of the capital, where the problem of telephone installation is especially acute. Commercial operation began in August (see PC Week/RE, No. 36/98, p. 21). Currently, 14 base stations (BS) have been introduced and about a thousand subscribers are served. There are about 20 more BS at various stages of readiness, which will be able to serve a significant part of the city. It is expected that by the end of next year the network will cover the entire territory of Moscow and the surrounding Moscow region and will provide communications to about 40 thousand subscribers.

Skylink, Cellular Communications of the Chernozem Region and Rostelecom:

SSC (Skylink), after reorganization into CJSC Astarta, was sold throughout Russia with all its licenses (including for GSM) to Rostelecom. Rostelecom is building its UMTS networks in many regions of the Russian Federation and plans to become the fourth 3G+ operator in Moscow in December. After the communications monopolist covers all areas from Anadyr to Kaliningrad, Skylink will leave the game forever. Despite the fact that we currently have conferences on Ev-Do Rev. in Europe. C, which allows you to reach speeds of up to 500 MB/sec. in both directions, Russia is unlikely to pull off something similar in the next 5-10 years. Don’t forget how many years the Ministry of Communications issues licenses for you, and if under Reiman there was at least some hope for the future of SkyLink, now there is none. The operator's phones are 8-10 years out of date, flagship, runs on OS Windows Mobile 6, for which there is practically no supported modern application. Most likely, the IMT-MC 450 MHz standard will be used for telephony in remote areas where it is very difficult to lay a cable; devices like Nexpring NP10T will be installed to connect handsets via RJ11 and possibly access the Internet at a speed of about 1 Mb/sec.. This the best that can happen to the company, in the worst case, it will be abolished along with all obligations to former subscribers, perhaps even with all the licenses who actually need GSM. Returning back to the reorganization of SSC into Astarta, it is worth noting that this was a forced step by the company to continue providing communication services in Voronezh and the region; the old company would have been dragged through the courts by defrauded SSC subscribers in Kursk, Belgorod, Orel and Tambov, who were left with NMT Nutcrackers and positive balances after May 30, 2005. After waiting the promised 3 years, they went to the courts, not regretting spending more than the positive balance on the balance sheet. By the way, the main role in this case was played by human stupidity, because a company that barely covered Voronezh and barely recruited 10,000 subscribers would hardly have been able to compensate for anything.

Sonnet and Skylink:

Now about the Sonnet. It seems to me that Wikipedia has enough information for 9 years, like the deceased operator. I can only add that the cellular operator Sonet, which appeared on August 17, 1998, at the height of the crisis, worked in the IS-95 standard. Despite the unique tariffs, beautiful rooms and modern handsets, the operator was constantly plagued by failures. The fact that it started during the crisis of 1998 is not the only problem. The operator's choice of the CDMA standard in the 800 MHz band (IS-95), as history has shown, was not very successful. At first, the company had to litigate with the Ministry of Communications, trying to prove that this standard could be used not only for wireless fixed communications. Later, the so-called “problem of 2010” arose: in April 2000, the State Commission on Radio Frequencies (SCRF) made a strategic decision regarding all cellular networks in the 800 MHz range (CDMA and AMPS/DAMPS standards). By 2010, digital television began operating in this range in Russia, so mobile operators had to abandon it. With the support of the Ministry of Antimonopoly Policy, Sonnet won a victory in the courts over the Ministry of Communications. The courts declared the requirement to work exclusively in a fixed mode illegal, and also protected Sonnet from the “problem of 2010”. However, these victories remained on paper, because the main shareholder of the operator, AFK Sistema, or rather its former division Sistema Telecom, which included Sonet, decided not to conflict with the Ministry of Communications. The fact that the Sonnet network would cease to exist became known already in May 2004. Previously, the shareholders of Sistema Telecom, a structure that included the Sonet company, considered the development of a CDMA (IS-95) network to be unpromising. New connections to Sonet stopped in September 2004, however, representatives of the operator assured that the network would continue to operate until the last subscriber. However, in reality it turned out that the Moscow network worked only until March of the next year, despite the fact that it continued to serve about 40 thousand subscribers. March 27, 2005 was the last day of operation of the Sonet cellular network. The next day, the operator’s license expired, and at the same time all telephone handsets connected to this network fell silent. Subscribers were “drove” to SkyLink, they had to exchange their polyphonic, color modern phones for nutcrackers Synertek S-200, Hyundai-Curitel HX-510B and Huawei ETS 388, which, apart from calls, could not even write SMS, but if this bandura is connected to PC, you could access the Internet at a speed of 153 kb. /sec., which was 3G speed according to Skylink (they were, of course, silent about EDGE). Beautiful numbers in the code +7-501, subscribers were replaced with regular +7-901, also without asking.

Kodotel, Votek-Mobile and Tele2:

On December 19, 1997, the closed joint stock company Kodotel received a license from the State Committee for Communications for the CDMA IS-95 standard, number 9070, for the provision of communication services. Kodotel becomes a pioneer of the first CDMA systems in Russia. Like “Sonnet,” “Kodotel” falls under the “problem of 2010,” but it is not going to give up. Of course, Kodotel does not have the kind of money to sue in Moscow and win, like Sonet, but it is becoming a popular operator in the Voronezh region and makes the most of the network by issuing a city six-digit number to each subscriber to connect to unlimited tariffs. As a gift, given unlimited Internet at low speed, which is quite good for Dial-up times. Kodotel also organized generous promotions for subscribers, gave gold jewelry when buying a new phone, raffled off cars, etc. In those same distant times, in the city of Voronezh there was another independent operator, Votek-Mobile, operating since 1995 in the same frequency range (800 mhz), but in the AMPS standard. Votek-Mobile also waged its own war, hoping to extend the license for the range at least until 2010, but its attempts were unsuccessful. In 2003 - 2006, the Swedish operator Tele2 came to Russia, which hoped to conquer the whole of Russia with its cheap tariffs, buying up small regional operators; in Voronezh, Tele2 bought Votek-Mobile, pocketing several tens of thousands of subscribers. By the way, Tele2 was counting on fair play and thought that getting a license in Moscow, after St. Petersburg, would not be difficult, but that was not the case. Courts, raids and other delights of life, or rather existence in Russia, simply did not give them a chance, like many others. But let’s return to the Kodotel company, which still managed to get a license, or rather the right to life until 2010. Kodotel continued to develop and provided a high level of service to its subscribers, which is what subscribers valued in their favorite operator. After all, subscribers of small operators are very conservative and value just those little things that are inaccessible to a simple subscriber of the Big Three. On the eve of 2010, Kodotel makes the last push to save his life - he participates in a competition for a GSM-1800 license and wins it. However, by this time, other operators were already working in the 3G standard, and the century had switched from “voice” to “Internet”. Even a free connection to the network with a city number did not save Kodotel from inevitable death. In the spring of 2013, it was announced that Kodotel was buying Tele2. By the way, Tele2 was bought by VTB Bank in the same spring, which mothballed the operator until better times in the condition in which it is. Of course, VTB squeaked something about how they would quickly get a license for Moscow, but quickly shut up.

Rostelecom and the Big Four:

While everyone was looking at the top three, a non-mobile operator was buying up small cellular networks right in front of them, namely:

1. NSS, providing its services in eight regions of the Volga region: Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, Saratov, Ulyanovsk, Orenburg regions, the Republic of Mordovia, the Chuvash Republic and the Republic of Tatarstan.
2. Elaine-GSM, operating in the Republic of Mari El.
3. Tambov-GSM, Tambov. and Tambov region.
4. Volgograd-GSM, working in the Volgograd region.
5. Utel, operating in seven regions of the Urals: Perm Territory, Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk regions), Khanty-Mansiysk, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
6. ETC, a GSM mobile operator in six regions of Siberia: Krasnoyarsk region, Republic of Khakassia, Republic of Tyva, Kemerovo region, Altai Territory and Altai Republic.
7. Baikalwestcom, mobile operator of GSM and CDMA standards in the Irkutsk region and the Republic of Buryatia.
8. Akos, mobile operator of the GSM-1800 standard in Primorsky Krai.
9. Dalsvyaz GSM, operating in five regions of the Far East: Amur region, Jewish Autonomous Okrug, Kamchatka Territory, Magadan and Sakhalin regions.

In the summer of 2013, all these networks ceased to exist under their own brands, becoming Rostelecom. Immediately in August 2013, Rostelecom launches its own mobile network 3G standard in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, and in December it is going to launch a cellular network in Moscow and Moscow Region. In the style of Ostap Bender, Rostelecom may displace the same VimpelCom, operating under the Beeline brand, in the near future. Personally, it seems to me, and by the way, I am rarely mistaken, that the purchase of the Tele2 operator by the state bank VTB is nothing more than a government scam. Who knows, he will understand, because VimpelCom wanted to buy Tele2 at a much higher price than VTB, but they threatened the Swedes, saying that it was either so much or nothing. The Swedes, having finally understood “how business is done in Russia,” did not argue and breathed a sigh of relief. After Rostelecom launches a cellular network in Moscow, most likely Tele2 will be purchased by it from VTB Bank, thus Rostelecom will be represented in almost all regions of Russia, with minimal tariffs to increase its subscriber base. VimpelCom, which closes the top three, will be fourth almost immediately, and fourth, as the practice of the cellular communications market in Russia shows, no one needs.