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Yota's LTE frequencies revoked, LTE plan unchanged
Russian regulator Roskomnadzor has revoked permission to use some of the frequencies issued to Scartel (brand Yota) to build LTE network reportedly due to violation of the law, according to a report by newspaper Vedomosti earlier this friday.
Regulator has banned a strip of 20-30 MHz allocated to Yota in the range of 2.5-2.7 GHz in 170 major cities of Russia, including Moscow and St. Petersburg.
However according to Scartel, plans of the Yota on introduction of 4G remains unchanged. It does not interfere with the company's plan to launch LTE networks. Yota CEO Denis Sverdlov intends to speak on Monday at a press conference in RIA Novosti.
Scartel had previously announced plans to launch LTE network in five Russian cities in 2010 with investment of $ 100 million in the project.
According to Yota, the first city of the network will be Kazan, then followed by Novosibirsk and Samara.
Russian regulator Roskomnadzor had announced that Russian Wimax operator Scartel and national operator Rostelecom can use their existing radio frequencies for deploying LTE networks in July.
Yota had announced to drop Wimax in favor of LTE in may this year. The company had launched Mobile WiMAX network in septemebr 2008 in Russia and had deployed the Networks in 2.5-2.7 GHz frequency in Moscow.