Consortium to Build Russian WiFi Network

Russia. It what has to be a pretty big gamble a consortium of providers will build a WiFi network envisioned to span 15 time zones. Details as to when contracts will be let are sketchy. But here is what is known –

5 communication operators have claimed to launch WLAN-roaming into commercial exploitation. Wi-Fi roaming of the operators Comstar-UTS, Interregional TranzitTelekom, PeterStar, Prostor Telecom and the universal service provider Tango Telecom will be available in 17 cities of Russia.

Wi-Fi roaming will resemble automatic roaming in GSM networks: to sign in a subscriber will have to use the login and password received from ‘home’ operators. It will be possible to connect to the network in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk, Sochi, in general, in 17 cities covered by Wi-Fi networks of the project participants.

The payments for roaming between the operators will be made depending on the time spent by the ‘guest’ subscriber in the network, Comstar-UTS told CNews. The given time is multiplied by the tariff indicated in the roaming contract. The ‘home’ operator transfers the payment to MTT, while MTT transfers the payment to the ‘guest’ operator net of its commission.

Comstar-UTS and Tango Telecom are launching bilateral roaming within the project, i.e. the given companies’ subscribers are able to use the access parameters received from their operator both in the ‘home’ and ‘guest’ networks. Wi-Fi network aggregator is MTT. The company provides the internet traffic exchange and collects the tariffs to carry out the payments between the operators and coordinate the cooperation between the operators.

Hope they pull it off. Just keep you ‘roof’ happy guys.

Linky.