UMTS and the Russian Illuminations: doing away with the gray

date: March 20, 2002

Trials of a UMTS system in Russia have been a great success. The trials included the country's first data transmission: a successful high-quality, city-to-city videoconference between Moscow and St Petersburg over a 3G mobile network. The trials were the result of a collaboration between Ericsson and Moscow operator Sonic Duo/MegaFon.

Successfully demonstrating voice and data calls between UMTS, GSM and PSTN fixed networks, the tests were part of a trial UMTS zone being built in Moscow. If the results are anything to go by, UMTS could well offer the Moscow region a future full of multimedia applications.

Testing on the UMTS zone will carry on until the end of the third quarter of 2002, during which time the network will be continually upgraded.

New apps for Russian consumers

Ericsson is supplying the trial system as part of its volume production of 3G equipment. Future tests are looking at ways of extending the service capabilities of the system with a whole range of new applications for Russian consumers.

It was the first time an application as advanced as high-quality, city-to-city videoconferencing had been tried over a mobile system in the whole of Eastern Europe.

Robert Pajos, Vice-President Ericsson Eastern Europe and Central Asia, says: "We are glad that the Ericsson UMTS system has given our partner Sonic Duo such vast opportunities for looking into the future while testing numerous 3G applications and service platforms."

Sonic Duo is a MegaFon network operator in the Moscow region. MegaFon is a collaborative project throughout Russia in which operators Sonera, Telia, Telecominvest and CT-Mobile aim to bring together participating Russian GSM operators into a joint network. MegaFon's group of companies has a subscriber base of more than one million.

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