The operator will completely shut down the UMTS 2100 network in 2025
By the end of 2023, the MTS operator completed the transition of all 3G base stations in the 2100 MHz range (UMTS 2100) to the 4G LTE standard within the Central Ring Road (CRR) of the Moscow region.
As the press service noted, thanks to the implementation of this project, mobile Internet speed and network capacity in large areas of Moscow and the region increased by an average of 30%. In the rest of the region, the company will completely switch off the UMTS 2100 network in 2025.
Technical Director of the Moscow region of MTS Vladislav Medvedev said:
We have completed an important and responsible project to refarm UMTS 2100 frequencies within the Central Ring Road. Now almost all 3G base stations in this range over large areas have been transferred to the modern LTE standard, which has given millions of our subscribers an increase in Internet speed and network capacity by almost a third. MTS will continue to work on refarming the 2100 MHz range in order to completely transfer the remaining locations throughout the Moscow region to 4G from 2025.
According to Medvedev, subscribers with old 3G devices that do not support LTE will continue to use services in a different range — UMTS 900 MHz, whose coverage exceeds UMTS 2100.
Among the MTS subscriber base, the penetration of 4G devices in the Moscow region at the end of 2023 reached 76%, and the share of 3G devices without LTE support was less than 2%.