Retrospective. 10 years of Yota and 10 interesting facts about the company

This year, Yota is ten years old. During this time, there was nothing: the company first entered the Russian market with LTE, managed to launch and close WiMAX networks, made unlimited 4G Internet available for 78 regions, first used drones to deliver SIM cards and worked with space materials to create accessories . In general, we collected 10 of the most interesting facts about the company on the occasion of the anniversary and restarted the blog on Geektimes. Hello again!

2007. Three employees and all in sneakers

Formally, the Yota story began in 2006, when Denis Sverdlov and Sergey Adonyev became interested in the possibility of creating an Internet operator. Then, as the technology chosen the latest at that time WiMAX. Broadband mobile Internet access was practically not represented in Russia, it was possible to be the first to enter this market.

2008. Logo in the form of an inverted man

The startup quickly gained strength, and a year later Yota was the first to launch a wireless broadband access network using Mobile WiMAX technology in Moscow and St. Petersburg for test operation. A total of 150 base stations operating in the 2.5-2.7 GHz band were installed in the two cities. The access speed made it possible to watch movies on different user devices in high resolution with an affordable subscription fee: the Max Yota fare was 1,400 rubles a month, the Yota Mini cost 900 rubles.

In November, HTC presented the world's first full-fledged WiMAX-communicator HTC MAX 4G, which was created on our order specifically for Russia. The device made it possible to work on the Yota WiMAX network, providing access to all the pre-installed Yota services: Yota TV, Yota video, Yota music. It was possible to buy a smartphone for 28,900 rubles.

By that time, the company already employed about 400 people. And at the same time in the London agency “300 Millions” they created a logo for Yota, an inverted man who is still in use. It reflects the key characteristics of the brand - originality, joy and freedom of action.

2009. First successes and self-sufficiency

We are actively expanding our network. In 2009, Yota became available to residents of Ufa, Krasnodar and Sochi, and also reached the capital of Nicaragua and entered the market of neighboring Belarus. The coverage of the network in two Russian capitals, Moscow and St. Petersburg, was expanded. As a result, following the results of October 2009, the company for the first time became self-sufficient, earning $ 6 million, and in December, 250,000 people used our services. This result was also appreciated by President Dmitry Medvedev, having given the Yota developers the Grand Prix of the “Breakthrough” prize at the youth “Winners Forum”.

In October 2009, we released the Yota Egg mobile router to distribute the Internet via Wi-Fi.

2010. The first LTE network in Russia

In autumn, Yota launched the first Russian LTE network in Kazan, which allows data exchange between mobile devices at speeds up to 100 Mbps. The network was launched just for one day, and its construction cost the company $ 20 million. At the test computers during the presentation, journalists managed to get a stable download speed of 20 Mbit / s. Read more about how it was .

Toward the end of the year, Yota organized in St. Petersburg a non-profit international festival of digital interactive art Yota Space.

2011. Launch of the first commercial LTE network

In September, the company received permission from the State Radio Frequency Commission (SCRF) to use the previously allocated WiMAX range to launch the LTE network. Thus, the company became the first LTE operator in Russia, and on December 20, 2011 the official launch of a commercial network in Novosibirsk took place. The network was fully ready for joint operation by several operators.

In the summer of 2011, two new items arrived on the market: the Yota Many router and the Yota One modem.

2012. $ 60 million to launch a new network

In February, Yota announced the upcoming transition to a new technology. We decided to switch WiMAX networks to wireless data transmission using LTE technology. The total number of LTE base stations exceeded the existing number of WiMAX stations in Moscow by 1.5 times, and in the Moscow Region - by 10 times. The total investment in the launch of the new network, including the replacement of subscriber equipment, amounted to $ 60 million.

On the night of May 9-10, the Moscow WiMAX network was disconnected - from that moment Yota officially switched to the more promising LTE technology. The next day, the free replacement of WiMAX devices for LTE began. A total of 240,000 devices were issued, representing 80% of the active client base. In the five months after the commercial launch of LTE, the company gained about 600,000 active users.

In October 2012, Yota introduced the first commercial mobile network based on LTE-Advanced technology. This network consisted of 11 base stations. LTE-A provides data transfer speeds of up to 300 Mbps, and today this technology is available to residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

2013. Mergers and Acquisitions

In 2013, the Yota network covered 26 cities of Russia.
And the main event of the year was the sale to MegaFon of 100% of the shares of the Scartel company, which owns the Yota brand. Thus, in November 2013, Yota LLC joined Scartel LLC, and the total value of the companies was more than $ 1 billion.

2014. The fourth mobile operator

In 2014, a new important stage began in the life of the company. In addition to mobile 4G-Internet, we began to provide voice services, becoming the fourth federal operator with the prefix + 7-999. At the time of launch, the number of pre-orders of SIM-cards exceeded 150 thousand. In August 2014, we started issuing our SIM cards for smartphones in six regions: Moscow and Moscow Region, St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region, Primorsky Krai, Khabarovsk Krai, Vladimir and Tula regions.

The company is expanding its presence in the regions: Yota cellular communication is already available in 52 regions of the country, unlimited 4G-Internet in 34 cities of Russia.

2015. Innovative ways of delivering SIM cards

The company grows and develops. Yota SIM cards for smartphones and tablets can be purchased in 71 regions, and modems and routers in 66.

In September 2015, we conducted an experiment, having mastered an alternative method of delivering goods - we organized the world's first delivery of SIM-cards by drones . In one month, the drones flew to 964 Yota customers. The promotion operated only in Moscow: to get a Yota SIM card in an unusual way, you just had to come to any Yotaport with a passport and fill out the contract. For Yota customers, delivery was free. During the experiment, the drones flew 578 km , and it came out cheaper courier delivery.

2016. Space technology for everyday things

In 2016, Yota was the first in the world to offer its customers free communication in foreign roaming . Yota users can chat in the five most popular instant messengers - WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, iMessage even with a zero balance.

In March 2016, the first official Yota mobile app for Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile users was released. As it was: as an experiment, two young programmers from Novosibirsk wrote an unofficial client, and after a proposal to join the team, they moved to St. Petersburg, and wrote a new, official application.

In May, Yota launched a new product for legal entities: unlimited internet and calls in the Yota network for 0 rubles.

2017. Yota today

10 years after the foundation of the company, its staff increased from three to 1,200 employees. Six large regional offices have been added to offices in St. Petersburg and Moscow, as well as 35 mini-offices throughout Russia. You can buy Yota SIM cards for smartphones and tablets in 81 regions of Russia, and for a modem product unlimited 4G Internet is available in 78 regions.

And after a long silence, we again run our blog on Habré. Subscribe, it will be interesting.