In the LPR, after ten months of ban, mobile Internet started working with new operators “+7Telecom” and “Miranda-Media”

In the LPR, on January 17, the Internet went live with two new mobile operators for the region – “+7Telecom” and “Miranda-Media”. Before this, there was a ban on mobile Internet for more than ten months. Miranda Media claims to have launched mobile Internet throughout the region, and +7Telecom did this in Lugansk. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors in the market, Miranda Media operates on the networks of an operator already operating in the region and problems may arise with maintaining their functionality due to ongoing hostilities.

Mobile operators “K-Telecom” (brand “+7Telecom”) and “Miranda-Media” reported in their Telegram channels that on January 17 they launched mobile Internet in the LPR. Prior to this, mobile Internet services were provided “in test mode” only by the local operator ISS (until July 1, 2022 – State Unitary Enterprise LPR “Lugacom” under the brand “Lugacom”).

At +7Telecom, at the first stage, mobile Internet will operate only in Lugansk, but within a year the company promises to extend it to key highways (Lugansk-Donetsk, Lugansk-Rostov-on-Don), and other major settlements. The operator has an “In touch” tariff, which includes 20 GB of Internet and unlimited within the network.

Miranda Media claims that mobile Internet is already available in “absolutely all settlements of the LPR.” Now the “Start Lugansk” tariff is in effect, which includes 30 GB of Internet, 800 minutes of calls and 300 SMS. “When traveling around Russia, customers can use mobile communication services as in their home region and not pay for roaming while on the Tele2 network,” the company explained to Kommersant. They clarified that the actual average speed of mobile Internet is up to 150 Mbit per second. Miranda Media says that “the network is 70% ready, and this year it will also cover highways.”

For both operators, the monthly payment is 200 rubles.

In February 2023, MKS, then the only operator operating in the region, on the recommendation of the FAS and by order of the Ministry of Digital Development of the LPR, excluded mobile Internet from all tariffs.

“If we had not made such a decision at one time and had not turned off the mobile Internet, this could have led to quite unpleasant situations in the form of shelling,” explained then acting head of the LPR Leonid Pasechnik (quoted by RBC). Kommersant’s interlocutor at the local market explained that the use of mobile Internet “made it easier to target crowds of people during shelling.” In December last year, the Ministry of Digital Development of the LPR announced the lifting of the ban on mobile Internet.

According to a Kommersant source, Miranda-Media is launching communications based on the ISS networks, which already has wide coverage in the region – this provides the operator with coverage of the territory. According to the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the LPR Andrey Ershov, at the end of last year there were 2,098 communication base stations in the region, of which 1,460 belonged to MKS, 558 to Miranda-Media and 80 to +7Telecom.

A Kommersant source among telecom operators believes that the network in Lugansk was deployed using old equipment from Nokia and Ericsson: “The network there is small, but Chinese manufacturers would not risk supplying something new directly there.”

“There is equipment from Ukrainian operators left in the region, it is being restored and reflashed,” clarifies Kommersant’s interlocutor on the IT market. He explains that the main difficulty in maintaining a communication network in the region is the ongoing military operations: if a shell hits the station, then “no one will try to repair it under the bullets.”

Alexey Zhabin, Tatyana Isakova, Yulia Yurasova