The fifth generation communications base station manufactured by Skoltech is not an industrial solution, but only a demonstration model. This was stated by MegaFon’s Director of Government Relations of Russian media Vladimir Mesropyan at the VIII annual conference “Digital Industry of Industrial Russia” (CIPR-2023) in Nizhny Novgorod.
“If we talk about the 5G base station, which comes from Skolkovo, there have been several approaches. <...> The problem with the solution that is demonstrated now is that, as far as I know, it is assembled in an open architecture, but from non-industrial components. In other words, this assembly is, in fact, a demo layout. It was assembled from what is available, so to speak, put together – it works, ”explained Mesropyan.
According to Mesropyan, earlier the virtual part of the 5G base station was launched on a regular x86 server, while the development presented by Skoltech is rather a prototype, “assembled on certain principles, with certain software, which shows that the station base can operate on such principles”.
“But it’s not an industrial solution. As far as I remember, about three years ago Skolkovo already showed the “five”. Approximately every year Skolkovo pulls out the “five” and shows it. I don’t know what’s changing, honestly. Therefore, we are actively interacting (with Skolkovo). But still, as operators, we are looking for companies that produce industrial solutions,” Mesropyan stressed.
On the creation of the first Russian 5G base station “Skoltech” declared in April 2023. The National Technical Initiative Foundation reported that the development took three years and the total budget amounted to 474 million rubles, including 300 million in state subsidies. The NTI Foundation said the software and hardware complex for 5G networks “meets modern industry requirements”. By the end of 2023, they planned to release 100 of these base stations.
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