Penza, 16 July 2012. PenzaNews. The fourth generation network of Long-term evolution (LTE) standard is planned to be deployed in 41 cities of Russia, including Penza, until the end of 2012.

As the Minister of Communications Nikolay Nikiforov stated in his report at the cabinet meeting, over 38 million people (about 27% of the population) will be able to use high speed Internet connection through 4G.

“The development of broadband Internet access is an important task for the state because every citizen should have access to modern telecommunications services. Addressing the issue of digital inequality is strategically important because every 10% of broadband connectivity increases GDP by 1.38%, in particular by improving the productivity of labor,” the press service of the Ministry of Communications quoted Nikolay Nikiforov.

According to him, today communication technologies enabled the frequency resource in the 440 MHz. As a result of tender for the license of LTE, 260 MHz were allocated. Taking into account the traffic growth by 2015, it is necessary to allocate another 330 MHz of frequency resources.

“If we follow the normal way, the process of conversion for 260 MHz, allocated on a competitive basis, will take 10 years. It is important to change the approach and concentrate not on the process but on the objective. The objective is to convert 260 MHz maximum in 2 years, by 2014 and another 330 MHz by 2015, otherwise networks will not be able to cope with the increase in traffic,” the minister said.

Nikolay Nikiforov stressed that the Ministry of Communications of Russia expects the support of the Ministry of Defense in finding solutions that will allow to complete the conversion at a quickened pace and the support of the Ministry of Finance in order to develop a mechanism for the conversion non-budgetary financing.

According to the report, until the end of 2012, the new communication standard will be also introduced in Astrakhan, Vladivostok, Vologda, Dzerzhinsk, Yoshkar-Ola, Kirov, Kostroma, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Murom, Novosibirsk, Orel, Orenburg, Perm, Samara, Sochi, Tambov, Tula, Cherepovets, and other cities.