
Country
Company Name
Ownership/Controlling Entity
Website
MNC
3G UMTS Frequency Bands
4G LTE Frequency Bands
Company Overview
PJSC VimpelCom, trading as Beeline (Билайн), is the third largest mobile carrier operating in the Russian Federation. The brand was launched in 1993, shortly following VimpelCom's foundation in 1992, and initially provided a 1G AMPS cellular network.
Today PJSC VimpelCom (Beeline) is a member of the VEON Ltd. group of companies. VEON Ltd. is a global provider of communications, with the desire to be the first in personal Internet services for more than 235 million customers that the company serves at the moment, and for many others in the coming years. Headquarters of VEON Ltd. is in Holland, in Amsterdam. Shares of VEON Ltd. are listed on the NASDAQ and Euronext Amsterdam exchanges.
2G GSM services are provided over the 900 and 1800 MHz bands. 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.
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.
Beeline 5G
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.
Beeline IoT
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.
3G UMTS Network Information
Details on UMTS network deployments are shown below. Data are often incomplete due to commercial nature. Consult dossier text for further details.
Launch Date | 2008-11 | Status | Active |
UMTS Band | Packet Data | Status | |
---|---|---|---|
Active | |||
Active |
4G LTE Network Information
Details on LTE network deployments are shown below. Data are often incomplete due to commercial nature. Consult dossier text for further details.
Evolution | Status | Active [Launched 2013-05] | |
Max. MIMO | Max. Modulation | ||
Carrier Aggregation | Features |
LTE Band | Channel Width | Status |
---|
5G NR Network Information
Details on 5G NR network deployments are shown below. Data are often incomplete due to commercial nature. Consult dossier text for further details.
Type | Status | Planned | |
Max. MIMO | Max. Modulation | ||
Carrier Aggregation | - | Features | - |
NR Band | Channel Width | Status |
---|
IoT Network - NB-IoT (LTE Cat-NB1)
Technology | Status | Trialling | |
Band | Launch Date | - |