Beeline, known in Russian as Билайн, is a telecommunications brand operating in Russia and is owned by the company PJSC VimpelCom. The brand was initially launched as Bee Line GSM, with its inception dating back to the late 1993. In 2005, VimpelCom revamped the Beeline brand, introducing its characteristic black-and-yellow striped circle. VimpelCom, Beeline's parent company, is Russia's third-largest wireless and second-largest telecommunications operator, headquartered in Moscow. Since 2009, PJSC VimpelCom has been a subsidiary of VimpelCom Ltd., which was later renamed as Veon in 2017.
Beeline Russia 3G Network
In September 2008 Beeline launched 3G UMTS services over the B1 (2100 MHz), upgrading to HSPA+ in 2012, and DC-HSPA+ in 2013. The company introduced B8 (900 MHz) in January 2012.
3G Frequency Bands
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3G Network Events
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Launch of 3G Network
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Launch
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Beeline Russia 4G Network
4G LTE was commercially launched in Moscow in May 2013 over the B7 (2600 MHz) FDD band, and progressively extended outwards over the following years. In August 2014 Beeline announched LTE-A 2C carrier aggregation of B7 (2600 MHz) with a new B20 (800 MHz) service to provide peak data rates of up to 110 Mbps. The company secured additional licences to extend its B3 (1800 MHz) LTE network in October 2015 following a national spectrum auction.
To provide national coverage Beeline holds spectrum sharing arrangements with competitors MTS and Tele2, with agreements in place to extend services in 31 and 27 regions respectively. Beeline also holds a network sharing arrangement with MegaFon covering over 1,300 LTE 1800 base stations in at least 10 regions.
In January 2017 the company announced testing of LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U) and LTE-Advanced Pro (4.5G) technologies, along with both NB-IoT (Cat-NB1) and eMTC (Cat-M1) IoT network deployments. Beeline announced successful demonstration of LTE Licensed Assisted Access (LTE-LAA) in October 2017, combining 20 MHz of 5 GHz spectrum with 10 MHz of B7 (2600 MHz) to achieve 480 Mbps peak downlink data rates.
The company began commercial trials of NB-IoT over the B20 (800 MHz) band in June 2018. Further trials were conducted in partnership with Elster Metronika in October 2018.
4G Frequency Bands
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4G Network Events
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Launch of 4G Network
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Launch
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Beeline Russia 5G Network
In December 2018 Russia's SCRF allocated Beeline spectrum from 25.25 to 27.5 GHz for the purposes of 5G testing. Beeline submitted further applications for 5G test spectrum in the 3400 to 3800 MHz and 4400 to 4500 MHz ranges. Russia has faced major delays in launching 5G networks due to challenges in spectrum allocations.
5G Frequency Bands
5G Network Events
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