About the event

The 9the International Forum “Broadband Russia Forum: Evolution of Broadband Networks in the Age of Digital Economy, Distributed Data Centers and Cloud Services Ahead of 5G” was held in Moscow on Nov. 21, 2019.

The event, organized by COMNEWS Information Group, gathered 170 specialists from fixed and mobile service providers, regulators, vendors of telecommunication equipment, developers of digital solutions and services, system integrators, content providers and suppliers of cloud services, consulting agencies, business and industry media.

TransTeleCom Company (TTK) was Silver Sponsor of the Forum, Russian Towers Group was Infrastructure Partner; ADV Consulting, Ciena, IskraUralTEL and RDP.RU were Session Sponsors, and E-motion was Round Table Sponsor.

The event was also supported by KOMKOR (“AKADO Telecom”), 3data and Tet (Latvia).

Broadband Russia Forum was endorsed by the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), International Academy of Communications, and the National Association of House Communications and Information Networks (NADIKS).

Leonid Konik – General Director and Editor-in-Chief of ComNews Group kicked off the panel with an opening speech.

As part of Global Vision session, Tair Ismailov, GSMA’s Strategic Engagement Director in Russia and CIS, delivered a presentation on the best practices in mobile broadband promotion.

The Plenary Session was a panel discussion dedicated to the impact of government initiatives and regulatory modifications on the telecommunications infrastructure and the market overall. Panelists included: Vladimir Mochenov, Deputy Director of the Department of infrastructural projects, Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation; Alexey  Zlobin,  Head of Communications Department, Ministry of Public Administration and ICT of the Moscow Region; Konstantin Khrulkov, Rostelecom’s Director of the Department of Infrastructure Projects; Timofey Zebrin, MegaFon’s Advisor on Cooperation with Regional Authorities; Irina Levova, Strategic Projects Director at the Internet Research Institute; Anton Lachinov, Head of Analytics, Federal Government Relations, VimpelCom; Natalia Velikorodnyaya, Head of Regulatory Risk Management at Mobile TeleSystems (MTS); Timur Shikov, Director of Marketing and Strategy at Russian Towers, and Dmitriy Galushko, CEO of OrderCom.

At the plenary panel, representatives of operators and regional and federal government discussed some critical issues around the placement of telecom equipment in the cities. Panelists shed light on the opportunities of using municipal and state corporations’ infrastructure for 5G deployment and related challenges, and agreed that difficulties with access to regional infrastructure is the main barrier to mobile expansion, and there are also problems with placing radio equipment in proximity to privately owned properties.

The representative of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media urged operators to implement awareness campaigns in the population, so that the placement of equipment doesn’t stir any protests in the local communities.

Another spirited debate was caused by the draft law on non-discriminatory access to apartment blocks for operators.

Session 1, dedicated to 5G networks, was moderated by Gulnara Khasyanova, Executive Director of the LTE Union and CEO of Mikron. Speakers included: Dmitriy Sakharchuk, Chief Architect of Rostelecom’s Corporate Center; Alexey Krushinin, CTO of Macro-region Moscow at T2 Mobile (Tele2 Russia); Maxim Sukhov, Chief Engineer and Training Center Instructor at ADV Consulting;  Timur Shikov, Director of Marketing and Strategy at Russian Towers; Dmitriy Tochilin, MegaFon’s Head of RAN and Core Architecture; Petr Panov, Sales Manager CPE at IskraUralTEL, Vitaliy Shub, Deputy Head of NTI Center of Excellence in Wireless and IoT of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology.

Session 2 looked into convergence, cloud and novel services, along with the role of satellite broadband in B2B solutions. It was moderated by Andrey Mukhanov, Vice-Rector of the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Computer Science (MTUCI) and featured presentations from Ilya Khala, CEO of 3data; Evgeniy Dyadyura, Head of Development of B2B satellite solutions at VimpelCom; CEO of RDP.RU Sergey Nikulin; Co-founder of E-motion Konstantin Kokush and Head of Cloud Solutions at Mail.ru Ilya Letunov.

The forum concluded with a Round Table, which aimed to discuss the evolution of telecommunication operators into digital service providers. This panel was moderated by Sergey Potapov, Member of Supervisory Board of the ASTRA Association. Panelists included Alexey Kipchatov, Head of Sales Support at TransTeleCom (TTK); Vladimir Karpenko, Director of Strategic Marketing and Business Development at KOMKOR (“AKADO Telecom”); Konstantin Kokush, Co-founder of E-motion; Pavel Zavyalov, DataLine’s Business Development Director, and Vladimir Shaporov, Team Leader, Center of Telecom Solutions.Technoserv Group.

Broadband Russia 2019 demonstrated yet another time the importance of a dialogue between operators and the government and became an important platform for discussion and exchange of opinions on such hot matters as expansion of broadband infrastructure to meet the needs of 5G deployment, growth opportunities for telecommunication service providers, new services and unorthodox strategies to boost ARPU and drive up subscriber base.

ComNews Group has already scheduled the 10th International Broadband Russia Forum for 2020. It will look into the developments in follow-up of this year’s discussions along with exploring new topics and formats.