Year of high traffic

This year we are 20 years old. We started with five people in knitted sweaters, reverse engineering of American modules , an antenna on the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, phones the size of a couple of books - and if someone then called us the amount of traffic that went through the network last year, the engineers would simply twist finger to the temple. Yes, 2012 is a year of big traffic. For example, according to the results of the 3rd quarter of this year, the data traffic in the network grew by 78% over the year, and this growth will continue.

It took a lot of changes in the network. A year before the main transmission nodes in the packet network (more precisely, the traffic processing nodes) became a bottleneck, we made a fairly large replacement for new hardware: this is LTE-ready, scalable architecture, which means lower electricity costs per traffic unit.
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In addition, over the year, our engineers have done a lot in technical terms to upgrade and expand the network. Plus, at the end of April we launched HSPA + in the center of Moscow (this is a technology that allows us to achieve data transfer rates of up to 21 Mbit / s) and continue to develop this technology. In November, HSPA + worked in St. Petersburg, Arkhangelsk, Severodvinsk, Vologda, Cherepovets, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Veliky Novgorod, Petrozavodsk, Pskov and in more than 100 locations in the North-West. Now our network supports this technology in all regions of Russia for about 40% of the 3G network. In Moscow, where traffic requirements are highest, the network capacity is also increased by 40%.

Below - more details about the different changes in the network for the year.

Mobile Internet

We are systematically preparing the network for LTE launches. As we said earlier, the first fragment of the LTE network is under construction in Moscow, we have already received the appropriate frequency permits, and we hope that the official launch will take place early next year after clearing the frequency range. We also filed applications with the FSUE HRCC to conduct radio frequency examinations in the regions where we plan to launch LTE networks in 2013.

This year we did a lot to promote mobile Internet: on the one hand, we launched a line of interesting tariffs, and on the other, we launched a campaign to cancel Internet roaming in the country. Internet roaming throughout Russia is canceled for Internet users via a USB modem, 3G-Wi-Fi router or any other devices that work with a SIM card. Users take part in the action automatically, without additional payments. Since February 2012, for users of the Unlimited Internet, Unlimited Internet + WiFi, Unlimited Internet + WiFi for iPad services, Internet roaming throughout Russia has been canceled indefinitely. Thus, for all tariff plans, mobile Internet operates throughout Russia, under the same conditions as in the home region - without roaming.

Now this action with the abolition of Internet roaming extended until the end of March 2013. Plus there were packaged offers that would greatly interest those who often use the mobile Internet or travel frequently.

Another nice thing is the continuation of the support of "zero zones" - mobile versions of sites, for example, 0.vkontakte.ru, access to which via the mobile Internet Beeline is free. Also this year, traffic to Facebook has become free, and not only to the mobile version.

Network extension

It may seem that our whole country has long been covered by base stations, but still sparsely populated regions where it is necessary to use walkie-talkies instead of telephones, and telegrams remain the fastest method of communication between cities. Of the interesting new sites, it is worth noting the network sections in the Polar Region, where in the area of ​​the city of Usinsk the situation was almost the same from the point of view of residents of the capital. Interestingly, part of the network is located above the Arctic Circle. There are a lot of lakes, hills, streams and rivers, a lot of wetlands. All this together means the absence of roads and the enormous difficulties with the delivery of materials: as a result, they were transported only by winter roads or air transport.

The network is extended to the coast of the Arctic Ocean. In New Chaplino, Sireniki, Omolon, Cape Schmidt and Ryrkipiye now have the opportunity to make a phone call.

There was also a lot of work done in Sochi for obvious reasons.

In the middle of summer, a GSM network was launched in the Far East in the Primorsky Territory. Earlier in 2012, GSM networks were deployed in Yakutia, the Jewish Autonomous and Magadan regions and the Chukotka Autonomous District.

Of the interesting things, the easternmost base station in Chukotka belongs to another hemisphere, the most difficult to reach BS - in Dagestan (the equipment did not pass through the mountains, we had to carry equipment on donkeys) and in the Far East (two days through ferry crossings to BS in the village of Ogodzha, eg). In Krasnodar, there is a solar-powered BS that has been operating for several years. The northernmost BS is in the Arctic Circle at 73 degrees north latitude, located in the nodal sea port of Dikson on the Northern Sea Route route: the cable to her to pull was unrealistic, so she uses satellite teleport.

Internet for desktop

In more than 20 cities where the Home Internet service is presented, the tariff line was updated: according to the standard ones, we increased the speed by an average of 60%, plus added a new unlimited for 550 rubles.

NFC

In St. Petersburg, we tested the ability to put the phone to the turnstile and go to the subway. Tickets are bought directly from the phone menu (thanks to the capabilities of the SIM card), access to the turnstile interface is via the NFC module. Details are here in this topic . Now we are analyzing the results of this pilot project and are looking at how to make this service better.

M2M

The VimpelCom Ltd group of companies entered the TOP-20 of global mobile operators developing M2M services. About what M2M is and why robots need SIM cards, you can read right here , and here ’s an example of the “Video Control” solution.

Data center

On June 27, we began to build one of the most unusual data centers in Russia. Here are three posts about its architecture and choice of engineering solutions: one , two , three .

When the object is ready, it will receive a TIER IV level certificate, that is, it will have a very high uptime and full duplication of engineering systems. The architecture of the data center is modular, the size when fully populated is 1400 racks.

fault tolerance

This year, we were the first in Russia to receive an international certificate for ensuring business continuity BS 25999. A certification audit was conducted by LRQA. Back in 2004, VimpelCom began a program to back up the most critical information systems and services and to implement a business continuity process. Now there is a backup computing center, geographically distributed backup systems for all data have been introduced, synchronous replication of critical data has been developed, backup solutions have been developed for all the most important centralized systems aimed at providing services to subscribers and ensuring the functioning of the company itself. There are internal procedures that minimize response time and recovery after emergency situations, and minimize the time to resolve incidents that occur. All implemented solutions are regularly tested to meet the requirements of the recovery business in case of an emergency.

Emergencies this year were the most striking example - the restoration of communications after the floods in Krymsk .

miscellanea

• In the same year, we launched the Mobile Under Protection service. This is a phone insurance against theft, robbery, damage, dipping into the water and other unpleasant situations. Of the pleasant chips - the reaction by phone, the minimum of difficulties with the papers (only to subscribe in case of an insured event), the delivery of a new phone the next day after treatment (if necessary, immediately with the restored SIM card). Plus, an optional iOS and Android application that makes backup contacts, can search and block the phone, clear the data on the phone remotely.
• We started to launch experimental retail stores - “KNOW-HOW” in the shopping center “Semenovskiy” and “Beeline” in the shopping center “Zvezdochka” on Taganka. The general idea is that you can buy a device in one place, connect to the necessary services and set everything up.
• From this year on Google Play you can pay without registering a card, simply from the Beeline subscriber account, that is, use your balance to pay for apps and content on Google Play.
• The mobile phone account can also be used as an Alfa Bank card.
• In the Moscow metro appeared Wi-Fi .
• All new base stations are mounted with BTS Power Saving , that is, taking into account the requirements of energy saving.