Operators have increased the speed of mobile Internet in Russia

The largest mobile operators claim that they were able to increase the speed of mobile Internet in Russia in the first half of the year, which, according to analysts, has been falling since last year. MegaFon and VimpelCom are talking about growth of 10–12%, MTS notes “insignificant growth”. In the Tele2 network, indicators remained unchanged year-on-year. Independent analysts, however, confirm the increase in speed only in the Moscow region. The indicator improves primarily due to the transfer of frequencies for 3G to the 4G standard. But this mechanism has limitations: without the allocation of additional frequencies or the appearance of domestic equipment for expanding networks, speeds may begin to fall again as early as 2024.

Operators interviewed by Kommersant speak of an increase in the speed of mobile Internet in Russia in the first half of the year. So, in MegaFon they claim that they increased it year-on-year by 12% (up to 29.34 Mbps), separately in the Moscow region – by 6%, up to 44.27 Mbps. VimpelCom talks about the growth of data transfer speed in the LTE network “for the last year” by 10%. In MTS, the average value of the speed of mobile data transfer in Russia “shows a slight increase.” At Tele2, the speed of mobile Internet based on LTE in the first half of the year remained unchanged in the whole of the Russian Federation, but in the Moscow region it increased by 4%.

All operators explain that effective frequency refarming helped to increase the speed. So, MTS, for example, has already transferred to LTE about 62% of base stations in the capital region that used to work in the 3G standard, and plans to complete the refarming by the end of the year. This, according to the company, will give an additional increase in speed in LTE networks by another 10-12%. MegaFon clarified that the refarming program was implemented in 24 regions of Russia, which “allowed to increase the speed by 30%.” VimpelCom carried out refarming in the 2100 MHz band.

In February, TelecomDaily noted a drop in the average speed of mobile Internet in Russia from 21.7 Mbps to 21.1 Mbps. Now the agency admits that the dynamics of the fall has decreased, but the overall growth is observed only in Moscow – by 9.3%, to 35 Mbps.

Without expanding networks, refarming is a temporary solution to the problem, emphasizes Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily. In his opinion, the shortage of equipment will again begin to affect the quality of communication and data transfer speed in the first half of 2024: “The problem will not be solved without the supply of domestic equipment or the allocation of new frequencies for operators for LTE.”

Operators can maintain data transfer rates only by updating equipment and expanding channels, Artemy Moroko, founder of the Sipuni business telephony service, confirms: “Equipment in the Moscow region is replaced first of all, so the speed in the capital has increased slightly.”

Telecom operators expected that they would be able to use frequencies of 694-790 MHz to increase the capacity of LTE networks, which were released as a result of the digitalization of terrestrial TV, but the State Commission on Radio Frequencies (SCRF) regularly extends permission for broadcasters to them (see “Kommersant” dated June 14, 2022 ). On July 6, the NAT Telegram channel published a letter from Bella Cherkesova, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, stating that the State Committee for Radio Frequencies plans to extend broadcasters’ access to these frequencies until August 2025.

The only thing that operators could do to increase the data transfer rate is “connect new frequencies that do not exist,” emphasizes Aleksey Slukin, editor of the Telekommunalka profile Telegram channel: “There is simply nothing to develop networks further.”

Refarming will have an effect only for a while, and the load on mobile networks continues to grow rapidly, and without the allocation of additional frequencies, in particular in the 700 MHz band, the quality of communication may decrease in the next two to three years, MegaFon agrees. A Kommersant source in the telecommunications market believes that without additional mobile Internet speed ranges in Russia, they can reach the ceiling as early as 2023.

Vadim Krasnikov