According to an end-of-year report from Russian telecoms authority Roskomnadzor, the Federation’s four main mobile network operators (MNOs) – MTS, MegaFon, Beeline and Tele2 – increased their combined number of 4G LTE base transceiver stations (BTS) by 50% to over 240,000 in 2018, on the back of a 32% increase the previous year. By the end of 2018 the LTE standard accounted for nearly 35% of the MNOs’ total BTS, up from 27% at end-2017, Roskomnadzor added.
Tele2 Russia’s LTE BTS total rose by 122.7%, or 27,357, to reach 49,647 at the end of 2018, overtaking Beeline (which had 42,666 LTE BTS at end-2018, up by 16,304 or 61.8%), according to Roskomnadzor. The authority’s report placed MTS in second place on the list with 61,304 LTE BTS at end-2018 (an increase of 35.6% or 16,078), behind MegaFon which raised its LTE BTS total by 20,496 (31.1%) year-on-year to 86,435. Note that Roskomnadzor’s reported statistics may differ from operators’ published figures.