9 September 2011 (BNS)

An agreement with Russia makes it possible to bring 4G mobile communication to outback villages in Estonia, the daily Eesti Paevaleht reported.

Already this year EMT will install a total of one hundred 4G base stations, which will make it possible to achieve five times faster data communication compared with the present most up-to-date 3.5G network. "By the year 2016 the number of base stations we have permitted to the Ministry for Economic Affairs will grow to 1,850, which actually permits 4G mobile communication throughout Estonia's territory," said Ando Meentalo, head of the company's data communications.

The Estonians will be able to apply significantly cheaper 4G communication solutions in sparsely populated rural areas because in August Russia left the 790-862 MHz low frequency area, which it had used for military flight control, free for private mobile communication companies.

"We are planning to carry out a tender for the distribution of frequencies so mobile communication companies could take the low frequency bands into use already in June," Priit Soon, deputy director-general of the Technical Surveillance Authority.

In cities, where the number of communication service users is large, high frequency bands are used for 4G, because it permits serving a larger number of clients at the same time but in case of which the working area of the base station is smaller. EMT, which is plunging the fastest among the competitors into the new technology, has now working superfast data communication base stations in five areas of Tallinn, in Tartu and in Kohila. In October the company will conclude building of the G3 network and then will dispatch its technicians to build the 4G network.

Tele2 and Elisa are taking development of 4G in a more leisurely way, because the companies find that their clients are not so thirsty for superfast mobile data communication.