Moscow cellular communications to switch to digital standard

Mr A. Yesikov, deputy general director of Moscow Cellular Communications, announced at a press conference that MCC, which currently provides mobile communication services using the analog standard NMT-450, is in the process of determining which company it should purchase equipment from in order to provide digital mobile connections. Nokia (Finland) and Ericsson (Sweden) are prepared to provide GSM-450 standard equipment; QUALCOMM (USA) can provide CDMA-450 standard equipment; RadioDesign (Sweden) could provide DNMT standard equipment.The initial investment required to organize the network and conduct research on selecting a service and supplier totals $1 million. Estimated costs for switching from an analog to a digital network total $50 - 100 million. The business plan for the project should be finalized by August 1999. At present MCC has not chosen which digital standard it will use; the choice will depend on the cost for subscriber equipment, expenses needed to invest in the network, and the effectiveness of frequency use.