Scartel, under the brand Yota, had announced to drop Wimax in favor of LTE last week. "LTE network is already being planned in Russia" said company CEO Denis Sverdlov.

However Russian telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor announced that Yota's licence was issued for the provision of WiMAX services. Igor Torgov, managing director of Scartel, told the RIA Novosti agency that the licence did not include an exact definition of the technology permitted (see TMCnet article).

Yota expected that the necessary amount of investement will be around $1.8-1.9 billion in order to see LTE come into operation throughout Russia. Scartel has launched Mobile WiMAX network in septemebr 2008, in Russia and had deployed the Networks in 2.5-2.7 GHz frequency in Moscow.