The next station is Indian – Newspaper Kommersant No. 24 (7469) dated 02/09/2023
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Domestic mobile operators are considering the possibility of using equipment from Indian, Israeli, and Turkish manufacturers on their networks. This technique generally meets the necessary requirements, but there is a limitation on compatibility with networks operating in Russia, the operators note. They claim that foreign manufacturers are ready to invest in the refinement of the necessary products. But experts note that second-tier suppliers will in any case try not to advertise cooperation with Russian companies and may encounter problems in the supply of integrated solutions.
Russian telecom operators have begun testing base stations from manufacturers from India, China (outside the main suppliers represented by ZTE and Huawei) and Israel, Alexander Sivolobov, deputy head of the Skoltech-based NTI Competence Center for Wireless Communications and the Internet of Things, told Kommersant: “Such products remain a fallback option for operators and motivate Russian manufacturers to develop and produce worthy solutions.”
Information that Russian companies are importing new foreign base stations to Russia was also found by Kommersant in the unified register of conformity certificates. For example, OTK LLC registered in mid-2022 and early 2023 a certificate for the supply of BS from such vendors as JRC (Japan), HTC Corporation (Taiwan), Telrad (Israel).
MegaFon confirmed that they are now testing solutions from different countries “for the capabilities of the equipment.” “We studied telecommunications equipment from suppliers in India, China and Turkey and tested some samples,” Tele2 says. They added that “in general, a number of lines meet the technological requirements of the network.” The issue of compatibility with existing equipment has yet to be resolved, but “foreign vendors express their readiness to work with Russia and invest in the creation of the necessary products,” Tele2 says. MTS and Vimpelcom declined to comment.
In 2022, due to the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the leading manufacturers of telecommunications equipment Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei stopped official supplies of their base stations to the Russian market, but retained support for existing equipment. Due to the lack of stable supplies, Russian operators nevertheless reduced the volume of installations of new stations by more than 60% year-on-year by the end of 2022 (see Kommersant on February 6).
Officials assure that there is no shortage of telecommunications equipment in the country now. “Mobile operators are provided with stocks in warehouses for several years,” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko told TASS on January 19. However, there are no domestic base stations in Russia either. The equipment is being developed by Yadro Group of Companies: the company is one of the executors of the government roadmap for the development of mobile communication networks and has already signed forward contracts with MegaFon, VimpelCom and Rostelecom. Serial production should begin in 2025 (see Kommersant dated November 17, 2022).
The main drawback of the equipment of the so-called second-tier manufacturers from China, India, Israel and other countries is the need to refine it, Alexander Sivolobov explains: “Problems arise with the support and training of specialists, with reliability and stability, with adaptation to Russian operating conditions.”
The expert also emphasizes that the introduction of such equipment on domestic networks will lead to a significant increase in operators’ costs: “All shortcomings will have to be compensated for by excessive duplication, frequent replacement, which will inevitably affect the cost of services.”
A number of foreign vendors of second-tier telecommunications equipment may be interested in supplying solutions to the Russian Federation in order to fill the niche vacated by market leaders, Alexey Boyko, an analyst at MForum Analytics, notes, but “in the current situation, they are unlikely to want to advertise cooperation with Russian customers.”
Mr. Boyko also warns that vendors from India or Israel do not have extensive experience in developing integrated cellular solutions and supporting foreign mobile operators. Therefore, the expert doubts that their products can become a full-fledged replacement for the departed leading manufacturers, whose equipment occupies more than 90% of the fleet of base stations installed in the Russian Federation.
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