MTS has turned off part of the 3G connection inside the Central Ring Road in order to improve communication. Internet speed increased by 30%

MTS reported that by the end of 2023, the conversion of all basic parameters of the 3G 2100 MHz network (UMTS 2100) to the LTE standard within the Central Ring Road (CRR) will be completed.

Thanks to this, Internet speed and network capacity in Moscow and the Moscow region increased by an average of 30%. In these zones, the share of LTE 2100 base methods fully migrated from UMTS grew by 99% at the end of 2023, up from 78% in 2022.

In total, more than 930 sites were transferred to LTE in this region in 2023. At the same time, the share of basic 4G methods that previously worked within 3G increased from 75% to 84%.

We have completed a responsible project to refarm the UMTS 2100 frequency within the Central Ring Road. Now almost all 3G base stations for this communication in geographic areas are switching to the modern LTE standard, which means that for millions of our subscribers the increase in Internet speed and network capacity is almost a third. MTS will continue to work on refarming the 2100 MHz frequency in order to completely transfer the location effect throughout the Moscow region to 4G from 2025.

At the same time, MTS clients with old 3G devices that do not support LTE were not left without communication. They continue to use voice and data services in another channel – UMTS 900 MHz, the coverage of which includes UMTS 2100. Over the past two years, we have expanded the coverage of UMTS 900, which has made refarming completely invisible to subscribers.

— Technical Director of the Moscow region of MTS Vladislav Medvedev

According to the device, devices supporting 4G in the Moscow region amounted to approximately 76% at the end of 2023, the share of 3G devices without LTE was less than 2%.

Since 2018, the company has deployed an LTE 2100 network in 49 regions of Russia. In 2024, work on refarming UMTS 2100 is planned in at least 11 more regions.