Russia's top operators to use Yota's LTE network

Russia's Yota, which announced its decision to deploy LTE in favor of WiMAX last May, will roll out LTE to 180 cities by 2014, and Russia's main mobile operators will share the network.

Beeline, Megafone, MTS and Rostelekom have all signed deals with Yota, and they will have the option to buy shares in the operator in 2014. Tele2 AB is not involved at this point The network rollout is being funded by Russian banks and is approved by the Russian government along with Yota's investors.

"This deal is an endorsement of our vision for the future of the telecoms industry. We firmly believe in the separation of network ownership and service provision and believe that this ground-breaking agreement will drive innovation and benefit Russian consumers. Even more importantly, we believe that Yota can help all operators across the world to take advantage of the massive opportunity that 4G brings," Yota CEO Dennis Sverdlov said in a statement.

For more:
- see this Lte World article
- read this Light Reading Mobile article

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