Under the five-year agreement, NSN will be VimpelCom’s key supplier for radio equipment services for the 4G network extension to the central region of Russia, Siberia, South and most of the Volga and Ural regions.
VimpelCom introduced 4G to the city of Kaliningrad in October last year. The third-largest player in Russia plans to build 12,000 base stations by the end of 2014, with the overall aim of covering 55% of Russia’s population by the end of 2015.
This is NSN's second significant mobile broadband deal in Russia. The company won a three-year contract with Russian operator MTS to build an LTE network in Moscow and central Russia last year.
“We are delighted by this latest milestone in our successful co-operation with VimpelCom, which includes outsourcing projects,” said Kristina Tikhonova, head of region east at NSN.
“With this project, NSN will build an overlay LTE network that will significantly increase mobile data speeds in the respective regions and offer end users an overall improved communications experience.”
