Rostelecom and Scientific and Technical Center Protey established a joint venture

Rostelecom (MOEX: RTKM) and STC “Proteus”, which is developing the core of the communication network within the framework of the government “road map”, established a joint venture. The parties explain the partnership by the need to speed up the project. Rostelecom hopes to begin testing the 5G mobile communications core as early as 2025. Experts admit that in the future, the state-controlled operator will absorb the STC Proteus itself.

On January 29, Restream, owned by Rostelecom, and the communication equipment developer STC Protey, established a joint venture (JV) – Protei-RTK LLC, Restream has 51% of it, and STC has 49%, discovered “ Kommersant in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The company’s authorized capital is 100 thousand rubles, the main type of detail is “computer software development”, the general director is Ekaterina Bogdanova.

The joint venture “is aimed at the joint creation and accelerated development of a 5G communication network, including the use of available domestic technological solutions that help ensure the stability of maintaining critical information infrastructure and ensuring national security,” Rostelecom explained to Kommersant. They added that in 2025, Proteus-RTK will be able to conduct pilot tests of the 5G mobile communications core (the main infrastructure that ensures the operation of the entire network, includes routers, switches, routers and other network devices) in one of the operator’s operating regions.

STC Protei clarified that Rostelecom’s role in the joint venture is to conduct pilot launches of communications of the 5G/IMT-2020 standard: “The fruits of joint work will be modern software and hardware products ready for implementation on the networks of Rostelecom and its subsidiaries” . The joint venture “will unite the administrative, financial and scientific resources of the companies,” according to the STC.

“Proteus” is one of the implementers of the “road map” “Modern and promising mobile communication networks for the period until 2030” in terms of developing the core of the mobile communication network. The cost of implementing the project according to the document (Kommersant has a copy of the version dated December 2023) is 3.1 billion rubles. The STC network core will be tested on Tele2 networks. In December 2022, Rostelecom and Protey entered into a forward contract for the project, its cost is 2 billion rubles.

Rostelecom already has a stake in another company that is developing communication equipment within the framework of the “road map” – Bulat (developing communication base stations for small settlements). “Restream” has 51% of it, “NPC Elvis” has 38%, and “Kutek” has 11%. (see “Kommersant” dated September 20, 2023).

A Kommersant source close to one of the telecom operators calls the partnership “generally logical.”

“Proteus has developments in the network core, but they are far from carrier-class cores,” he explains. “Partnership with Rostelecom will allow us to test the solution on networks, testing it in small localities as part of a program to eliminate the digital divide.” Rostelecom is creating a “guaranteed sales market” for Proteus, adds Sergei Polovnikov, head of the Content Review agency. He admits that in the future the operator may be interested in purchasing the entire STC: “Rostelecom usually acts on a clear track: first it buys a controlling share, then it increases, and then a takeover may occur.”

Nikita Korolev, Alexey Zhabin