A couple of news about the working group on the preparation of proposals for the conditions of the competition for the provision of communication services of LTE standard

Yesterday (November 8, 2011) a document was posted on the Roskomnadzor website, from which it is clear that preparations for the LTE service commencement had begun: last Thursday (November 3) the head of Roskomnadzor (Sergey Sitnikov) signed an order according to which the working group on the preparation of proposals under the terms of the competition will be headed by the deputy head of Roskomnadzor (Oleg Ivanov), and the group will be determined within two weeks (until November 17, therefore).

Further circumstances have become much more interesting. Tonight, an exclusive material appeared on the RBC website, outlining the opinion of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). Right in the title, the working group of Roskomnadzor is called ineffective. According to the head of the FAS (Dmitry Ruthenberg) Department of Transport and Communications Control, it is clear from the text of the decision of the State Commission on Radio Frequencies for the introduction of LTE who will receive frequencies: the solution assumes the predominant position of the Big Three and Rostelecom operators in LTE contests. Now FAS does not intend to participate in the development of tender conditions for LTE frequencies (rejecting the invitation of Roskomnadzor) and is preparing to open a case at the Ministry of Communications for complaints of several operators (MTS, Kosmos-TV and Tele2) - this investigation is also scheduled to be completed in November.

Rutenberg also announced that he does not exclude the fact that the FAS will in the future challenge the adopted competitive decisions.