Moscow, Russia - November 12, 2013 -"Mobile TeleSystems" (MTS), the leading telecommunications operator in Russia and the CIS, and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., today announced the commercial service launch of MTS’ first 4G LTE-FDD network in the Northwest Federal District of Russia. The LTE-FDD network rollout in Russia’s Northwest Federal District is a part of the three-year agreement signed between MTS and Samsung in 2013.
MTS has completed the network roll-out built entirely on Samsung’s advanced LTE network and solutions, including testing of LTE-FDD mobile services in the Pskov Region. At present, LTE services are available in Pskov and Velikie Luki and by the end of this year, the network will span additional cities in the Pskov region including Ostrov, Nevel, Opochka, Novosokolniki and Pechory. In 2014, significant expansion is planned to extend the network to Saint Petersburg, Leningrad, the Arkhangelsk region and the Komi Republic.
The new high-speed mobile network, capable of providing end-users with up to 75Mbps data speeds, will support a wide range of LTE devices such as smartphones, tablets and modems. By supporting MTS’ launch, Samsung not only expands its Networks Business, but also gives millions of people the possibility to use state-of-the art LTE devices.
"Samsung is glad to support MTS’ first LTE service in the Northwest Federal District and will bring the most advanced LTE experience to the market with our globally proven LTE network systems." said Youngky Kim, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. "MTS's LTE networks are the proof showing Samsung's prime value to maximize customer's value. With Samsung's innovative LTE solution providing unprecedented speed of mobile broadband, MTS' subscriber will experience the evolutionary changes in their life style, such as enjoying HD video streaming, high speed contents download and web surfing."
"As a leader in the Russian telecom market, we needed an experienced partner to launch our 4G networks. Samsung was our preferred partner as it has vast experience and proven capabilities in deploying large scale LTE networks. We are very pleased with our collaboration on this strategic project." said Andrey Ushatskiy, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at MTS. "Pskov is the first region in Russian North West where MTS launches LTE and forth generation network will provide quality and high-speed mobile broadband which allows to get access to HD-video on mobile devices, cloud services, VPN, ect."
Samsung's LTE solution is backed by key accomplishments over 30 years of experience and leadership in developing and commercializing telecom technologies. Based on proven field experience in LTE technologies, Samsung has successfully partnered with dozens of mobile service providers, helping them to implement the most advanced LTE networks.