Minister confirms IS-95 standard doomed in Russia
March 16, 2001
MOSCOW—Russian Communications Minister Leonid Reiman,
who is known to back European-developed technologies,
confirmed that the U.S.-developed IS-95 standard is
doomed in Russia.
“I continue to believe that the standard has absolutely no
prospects for the Russian market. We shall stick to the line,”
the minister said and made it clear that carriers operating
CDMA technology based on the standard would have to
switch to new standards when their licenses expire.
“The deadline for the standard operation has been fixed, and
there are corresponding decisions of the State Commission
on frequency distribution. The carriers, which constructed
such networks have to normally operate them, recuperate
the costs and find a way of switching to another technology
or business, if they are interested in it,” Reiman said.
He added that even if the licenses are extended to “normally
operating carriers,” “additional items may be included into
them and outdated provisions excluded.”
Although Reiman agreed IS-95 is “a normal and operating
standard,” he said, “There are several dozen good standards
in the world. It is impossible to combine all of them in one
country.”
Russia’s CDMA Association protested, saying the minister
lacked sufficient information on the IS-95 standard. It
stressed the number of CDMA clients is rapidly growing in
the world and currently exceeds 80 million.
Despite Reiman’s statement, CDMA carrier Sovintel and
Lucent Technologies said they are determined to continue
cooperation in the construction of broadband fixed-wireless
CDMA networks in Moscow and St. Petersburg. According to
the contract signed in December 2000, Lucent is to supply
Airloop equipment based on DS-CDMA technology, which
operates in the 3.4 GHz to 3.6 GHz band. Commercial
operation is scheduled for the third quarter of 2001.
“Our company has already received an official permission to
construct the network and its testing,” Sovintel Director
General Alexander Vinogradov said.
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