This article is intended for the most inquisitive Tele2 subscribers who want to know in general terms how modern mobile communication networks function. We will tell you about base stations and the basic principles of building modern mobile networks.

Each base station of the Tele2 operator, as well as any other operator cellular communication, is a whole complex of rather complex and very diverse radio equipment. All elements of this complex constantly interact with each other to ensure uninterrupted operation of cellular communications 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.

The most visible part of the base station are the external transceiver sector antennas, which are most often found on the roofs of various buildings, chimneys and special antenna structures.

Base station antennas on a building in the center of St. Petersburg.

Sometimes base station antennas can be seen on more exotic designs. For example, the photo below shows not two palm trees at all, but cell towers disguised as them in the resort area of ​​Egypt. If you do not look closely, you may not notice fakes.

Tele2 uses telecommunications equipment from Nokia Networks and other major manufacturers in its network, including energy-efficient and compact Flexi Multiradio base stations last generation.

The use of only modern equipment will allow Tele2 to smoothly migrate from the gradually aging GSM 1800 networks to the networks of the most advanced LTE standard in the future (more on frequency conversion and the transition to LTE with Tele2 Russia CTO Ritvars Krievs).

Along with antennas, special radio relay stations can often be seen on the racks, which ensure the integration of the base station into the network of the mobile operator.

At the moment, more than 90% of Tele2 base stations are connected to the network via radio relay. However, with the transition to standards that provide customers with access to the Internet at high speeds, high-speed fiber-optic communication channels will be connected to key base stations.

All other base station equipment is located, as a rule, at some distance from the antennas and is located either in non-residential premises of the building on which the BS is mounted, or in special containers if installation in the building is not possible.

Modern base station equipment is so compact that it can fit in an oversized case. system unit a conventional computer (take for example the already mentioned BS Flexi Multiradio).

Flexi Multiradio base station equipment.

Signal amplifiers were often used in the past to improve indoor communication and increase the BS coverage area. “Now Tele2 is moving to distributed base stations, in which the radio module is located next to the antenna and gives it its maximum power, in addition, losses are reduced in the opposite direction. At the same time, such assemblies can be taken out from the common BS control module for a certain distance - for example, they can be placed along the perimeter of the roof of a building ”- Ritvars Krievs.

Coverage each base station depends on many different factors. Most strongly on the "range" of the base station is affected by the height of the suspension of the transmitting and receiving antennas, the terrain and the density of urban development. However, do not think that in order to provide good coverage, the operator only needs to hang the antennas higher and turn on the transmitters at maximum power. In many cases, engineers deliberately limit the range of individual base stations. For this, various types of BS are used: macro-, micro-, pico- or femtocells. This happens especially often in densely populated areas, where the need to ensure maximum capacity comes to the fore. cellular network.

Microcells are used to cover relatively small areas. In the photo: Peterhof. The antennas are installed at the level of the fourth floor of the administrative building and provide local coverage of the park.

For example, to provide sufficient coverage in an abstract urban area, one base station may be sufficient ( macro cell). However, as the operator's subscriber base grows, the number of living subscribers in the coverage area of ​​this station can significantly exceed its maximum throughput. And then, during the “peak” load, most subscribers will definitely start having problems with dialing (the message “network busy” familiar to many appears on the screen).

In this case, the operator installs several additional base stations, placing them at a low height and in places of greatest load. Due to the even distribution of base stations in a densely populated area, an increase in network capacity and a decrease in the load on each station individually are achieved. Such BS are called microcells. The coverage area of ​​a microcell, as a rule, does not exceed 1 kilometer, and in densely built-up conditions it can even be only 300-500 meters.

To avoid interference, which can occur with such a dense arrangement of stations and a limited frequency resource, all operators are forced to resort to complex frequency planning for their networks.

If the operator needs to locally cover the area with the maximum voice or Internet traffic (this can be a busy area near a metro station or an intersection with constantly occurring traffic jams), low-power microcells, which are installed directly in places of traffic concentration. The antennas of these base stations can be located only three or four meters from the ground, on low buildings and even, at times, on street lighting poles.

In large cities, operators solve another problem - high-quality coverage of key subscriber concentration areas in enclosed spaces. These can be shopping and business centers, metro stations, hypermarkets and other urban infrastructure facilities. Ensuring high-quality and uninterrupted communication in such places is a task of paramount importance. Here, a special type of compact base stations comes to the aid of operators, the so-called. pico cells, which provide the necessary quality of reception and network capacity in the interior. In some cases, instead of a separate base station, repeaters are used that relay and amplify the signal of an external BS inside the building.

Cellular antennas in the subway.

Outside of major cities, the maximum range of each base station comes to the fore. To do this, antennas are installed on the highest masts, the directional action of sector radiators is adjusted (which is especially important for BS installed along highways and railways) and, if possible, use more "long-range" frequencies in the 900 MHz range. The coverage area of ​​such a station can reach 32 km in normal operation.

Unfortunately, TELE2 in most regions has licenses only for frequencies in the 1800 MHz band, which leads to an increase in the cost of covering suburban areas - the range of BS operating in the GSM 1800 band does not exceed 5-6 kilometers, which forces the operator to install more BS than in when using GSM 900.

The installation of such base stations, located at a serious distance from civilization, is associated with high costs on the part of operators. It is necessary to lay many kilometers of power lines, build access roads, install expensive towers and equipment in difficult hydrogeological conditions (helicopters are often used for this), and ensure uninterrupted operation of BS in remote areas. Thanks to this complex work, we can use mobile communication even in the most "deaf" and isolated from civilization places.

"Harm" from Base Stations

Unfortunately, there is still a common misconception in society about the inevitable health problems that supposedly arise in people from the intensity of the electromagnetic field created by base stations. Especially often one hears about the dissatisfaction of the residents of residential buildings on which these same BSs are installed. Moreover, complaints about the action of antennas often begin to arrive even before the direct launch of the station.

BS antennas in front of a residential building.

Meanwhile, residents of houses with installed BS just get the least "radiation", due to the directional action of sector emitters (they practically do not "shine" directly "under themselves"). However, residents of neighboring houses also have nothing to worry about - when putting the BS into operation, the maximum norms of the electromagnetic field from them, established by SaNPiN, are necessarily calculated. And these norms in Russia, it should be noted, are much more stringent than those adopted in many other countries.

Computers, cordless phones, microwave ovens and other household appliances, not to mention pressed to your ear cell phone, create much more electromagnetic "noise" in our homes than BS antennas installed somewhere outside the window. To effectively reduce the level of the electromagnetic field generated by mobile phone just enough to hold it in the right hands.

• Never cover the upper part of the device with your palm - that is where in most cases the transmit-receive antenna is located;
• try to get closer to the windows during a conversation, even if an acceptable network level is provided indoors;
• the better the network catches, the less the cell phone transmitter radiates;
• We recommend turning off Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Internet connection immediately after the end of their use.

To effectively reduce the strength of the electromagnetic field at home, stick to a few good habits, many of which will also help reduce your electricity bill.

• Turn off the Wi-Fi hotspot at night or if you do not plan to use it for a long time;
• do not locate the base station of the DECT radiotelephone and wifi router in living rooms, the best place for them is the corridor;
• do not keep electrical appliances plugged in when not in use, buy a surge protector with the ability to turn off appliances individually and turn them on only as needed;
• do not keep mobile and cordless phones at the head of the bed;
• many models of cordless phones have special eco-functions that reduce the activity of the radio transmitter, for example, ECO-mode in Gigaset phones.

I would like to especially note the fact that in urban areas, operators almost never turn on the transmitter at maximum power, for the reasons indicated in the article. In addition, the power with which the transmitter operates is highly dependent on the load on the BS. Base stations outside the city, which usually operate at full capacity for maximum range, are located on high masts, which completely eliminates any harmful effects of radiation on the human body.

Thus, there is, of course, no harm from correctly installed base station antennas and cannot be, unless, of course, you are having a picnic on the roof right under the panel radiator directed at you. However, this topic is worthy of a separate discussion, so we will talk in detail about the imaginary harm of base station antennas next time.

We will gladly answer all your questions and criticism regarding this article in the Tele2 forum. We invite you to familiarize yourself with all of ours, some of which were used in this article.

Announced the launch of its network in the Moscow region. As representatives of the operator told during the presentation, residents of the capital will be able to use the services of Tele2 from October 22.

In total, four tariffs will be available to users. When connecting the tariff without a monthly fee "Orange", users will pay 1 rub. for SMS, megabytes of traffic or a minute of outgoing calls within the network and to numbers of all Russian mobile operators on Russian territory. The package also includes a gift package of 2 GB of Internet traffic.

Three package tariffs were also presented with subscription fee: "Black" - for 99 rubles. per month (2 GB of traffic), "Very black" - for 299 rubles. per month (4 GB of traffic and 400 minutes) and "The Blackest" - for 599 rubles. per month (10 GB of traffic and 1000 minutes). For tablets, a subscriber can purchase separate Internet traffic packages: 7 GB - for 299 rubles. per month, 15 GB - for 599 rubles. per month and 30 GB - for 899 rubles. per month.

During the presentation, Tele2 employees also made a comparison with the tariff plans of the Big Three operators. According to Tele2, a minute of calls within Russia to numbers of other operators from and MegaFon costs 3.9 rubles, and from - 14 rubles.

According to representatives of the new operator, the company was carefully preparing to enter the Russian market.

Tele2 built 7,000 base stations in a year

So, in just a year, Tele2 managed to put into operation 7,000 base stations, of which 5,000 operate in 3G networks and 2,000 in LTE networks. Despite the fact that the "big three" in the metropolitan region has much more stations (the same "MegaFon" has more than 23 thousand of them today), representatives of the new operator claim that many of them are losing their effectiveness due to age. “We used the latest equipment manufactured by Ericsson,” they emphasized during the presentation.

In addition, Tele2 is actively leasing antenna-mast structures of the Russian Towers company, installing its own base stations on them.

According to the first deputy CEO Tele2 Alexander Provotorov, the operator hopes to become self-sufficient within the next few years.

In total, the operator spent 4 billion rubles on the development of a cellular network in the Moscow region. This is 25% of the 16 billion loan funds received from the shareholder of Tele2 -. In addition, Provotorov noted that when entering the Moscow market, Tele2 used part of its own funds and a number of loans from other banks. “If we talk about investments in the Moscow project, then these are, of course, billions of rubles,” he summed up.

These funds also made it possible to open more than 400 mono-brand stores and retail outlets of the operator, as well as to conclude partnership agreements for the sale of Tele2 SIM cards in, Svyaznoy, branches and the Pyaterochka chain of stores.

Representatives of the operator are confident that in this way they will be able to attract many residents of the capital region, of which 600,000 have already taken part in a special certification program.

Nevertheless, the Big Three operators and a number of experts are not sure about the initial quality of Tele2 services.

It was previously stated that the lack of support for 2G networks will negatively affect the quality of Tele2 communication.

The fact is that when entering the Moscow market, the operator used only the frequencies of the 2100 MHz band in the 3G standard and 2600 MHz in the 4G standard. At the same time, at the time of launch, Tele2 will not use the 800 MHz GSM frequencies inherited from Rostelecom, which may adversely affect the quality of communication inside buildings.

Though low frequencies do provide better penetration, including inside buildings, the CEO of the TelecomDaily agency claims that their absence will not be a big minus for the operator.

“I can assure you that all this is just stories designed to scare potential customers and journalists. By and large, there will be no critical difference. Today, there are a lot of technologies that allow you to build networks in such a way that the difference will be almost imperceptible,” he told Gazeta.Ru.

According to him, today many world operators work without 2G networks, and the main disadvantage for Tele2 will be the inability to attract subscribers whose phones do not support 3G and LTE formats.

“As for the tariffs, in my opinion, they are quite profitable. But how much the company will be able to draw attention to them will depend on advertising support.

Moscow is the largest city in Russia, but it has very few mobile operators. Now people will have more choice, and MTS, Beeline and Megafon will have to work hard to keep customers,” said Kuskov.

But the expert clarifies that Tele2 will not be easy to compete with the "big three" that has long established itself. On the other hand, Tele2 has every opportunity to attract customers who were not satisfied with either the quality or the cost of the services of the Big Three operators. In three years, with the right marketing policy, the company will be able to attract approximately 20% of Moscow's subscribers. And this is a very significant share.

“I can’t name the exact figures of the budget spent by the operator to come to Moscow, but they fluctuate in the region of 4-7 billion rubles. But it will be difficult to quickly recoup these costs. The terms can be shortened with an increase in the pace of development in the corporate and private markets. In my opinion, it will take seven to ten years for the project to pay off,” summed up Kuskov.

MTS was wary of the emergence of another competitor

Representatives of mobile operators operating in the capital were wary of the appearance of a competitor on the Moscow market.

“Subscribers should be careful when choosing a new operator and not fall under the charm of the image of the so-called “discounter,” MTS spokesman Dmitry told Gazeta.Ru.

According to him, now Tele2 has practically no subscribers in Moscow, so almost all calls of the new operator's customers will be paid - after all, they will only call subscribers of the Big Three, and Tele2 charges these calls at an absolutely market value. In addition, MTS subscribers make free and unlimited calls to MTS subscribers in any region of Russia, while Tele2 is represented only in some regions, which inevitably affects the high cost of calls.

In addition, Solodovnikov argues that the subscribers of the new operator will inevitably face the fact that they will not be able to fully access the Internet due to fragmented coverage.

This means that a prepaid traffic package cannot be used up within a month, and subscribers' money can burn out due to coverage holes.

Owners of dialers that do not support 3G and LTE networks will not be able to use Tele2 in Moscow

The representative of Beeline, in turn, noted that Tele2 tariffs for the Moscow market are mostly lower than Beeline tariffs by 100 rubles. “This is the cost of two metro rides. In exchange for these dubious savings, customers are offered the unobvious quality of LTE communications, as well as the complete absence of GSM, although this technology is still used by a significant percentage of customers. It is noteworthy that the tariffs for Moscow presented today are higher in terms of the cost of regional Tele2 tariffs, that is, the operator has not confirmed the title of a true discounter, ”she summed up.

“We are pleased with the appearance of a new operator in Moscow: competition will make us even stronger, and most importantly, it will give our customers the opportunity to once again be convinced of the high quality of services,” MegaFon representatives noted in turn.

The cellular operator Tele2 is developing rapidly and is steadily expanding its coverage area and communication quality. Tele2 cell towers on the map below allow you to verify this, their number is enough to provide stable coverage for most regions of our country.

Briefly on the topic

• Tele2 base stations operate on Nokia Networks and Flexi Multiradio equipment
• Now the company is working towards the development of the 4G communication format
• Stations are located everywhere: rooftops, roadsides, subways and other places

Equipment

Our inquisitive readers are probably interested in knowing what towers Tele2 operates on? Telecommunications equipment that uses this mobile operator- really first class. Nokia Networks and Flexi Multiradio are the towers Tele2 uses, and these manufacturers produce the latest generation of equipment.

Now this mobile operator sets the task of providing its customers with an uninterrupted 4G signal and is successfully working in this direction - residents of large metropolitan areas have already seen this. In Moscow, St. Petersburg and many other cities, there is an LTE signal even in the metro. To make sure of this, we recommend reading the article about the Tele2 coverage map in the metro, which is on our website.

Where are located

Where are the base stations located? In order for the signal to be uninterrupted, cellular communication stations can be found almost everywhere - on the roofs of houses, along busy highways, in the forest, and in many, many other places. Sometimes, equipment is hidden in art objects, especially often in the historical part of cities, so as not to spoil appearance central streets.

How they work

How does a standard base station work? In a nutshell - your SIM card receives a signal that is distributed by the nearest tower, thereby providing you with various communication services - the ability to call, receive and send SMS messages, mobile data transfer. When a person with the phone on moves, the device will invariably receive a signal from the nearest tower, that is, switch between them. Thus, the connection will always be good. The exception is situations when something interferes with the signal - for example, you are in a basement in which no additional equipment is installed, or you have left the city, and the nearest station is far enough away from you.

Roaming

On whose towers does Tele2 work if you left the country? To date, Tele2 has entered into an agreement with most mobile operators around the world and can connect to their equipment. Thus, you may experience communication problems only in the most remote corner of the globe.

Cellular networks of the fourth generation, providing high-speed Internet access, are spread by all Russian operators. Someone has a slightly worse coverage area, someone has a little better, and someone is represented in a limited number of regions - there are many differences. The fourth-generation base stations are also available from the discount operator Tele2. Today, 4G from Tele2 is available in many regions, including in small towns. Let's talk about this in more detail.

LTE from Tele2 allows you to experience all the delights of high-speed mobile Internet - this is fast downloading of files, watching videos in good quality, low ping and affordable rates. The large coverage of fourth-generation networks allows you to count on high-quality communications in many settlements of Russia. Their work is carried out in the following frequency bands– Band 7, Band 20 and Band 31.

To work in 4G networks from Tele2, you can use any equipment - these are smartphones, tablet PCs, modems and routers. The main thing is that the equipment can work in the above frequency ranges. If this is not the case, then she simply will not be able to register in desired network. This often happens with equipment that was designed to work in other countries where other frequency bands are used.

But there is no need to be afraid of buying equipment - all devices officially imported into Russia will be able to work in any domestic fourth-generation networks, including 4G from Tele2. The main thing is to buy them in official stores, and not through Chinese or any other online stores.

Let's see what we can use in 4G networks from Tele2:

• Any smartphones and tablets officially imported into Russia;
• Tele2 modems and universal modems with support for the required ranges;
• Any mobile and stationary routers with 4G.

Thus, the range of equipment is not limited, which is already a big plus.

Branded equipment includes Tele2 4G modems, which are sold complete with a SIM card. They can provide download speeds up to 100 Mbps and upload speeds up to 50 Mbps. In fact, the real speed will be lower, due to the workload of base stations and a large number of subscribers.

Remember that all maximum values ​​in technical specifications were identified in the laboratory - in practice they are much worse.

In addition to the modem, Tele2 offers compact mobile routers for working in 4G networks. Being equipped with batteries, they can work offline. The kit comes with a SIM card. Up to 10 devices can be connected to this router- these are tablets, smartphones, SMART TVs and much more. Built-in battery capacity is 2000 mAh, which provides offline work within 5-6 hours (depending on the load).

Tele2 4G coverage is only available in populated areas - you can get acquainted with the coverage area on the official website of the operator, or directly on our website.

Here you will see a built map for networks of the second, third and fourth generation - for greater convenience they are marked in different colors. The widest coverage is in the networks of the second generation. They are followed by 3G networks and areas with 4G network coverage.

The 4G coverage map from Tele2 was generated by computer simulation and does not take into account the propagation of radio waves and other factors that affect the signal strength and speed of the Internet at one point or another.

Tariffs and options for 4G Internet from Tele2

High-speed Internet is needed not only on a computer, but also on a phone. Therefore, first we will talk about Tele2 tariffs - in principle, they can be used on almost any device. Here are the rates:

• "My Tele2" - unlimited calls to Tele2 throughout the country, 5 GB of traffic and unlimited traffic for social networks and messengers. An interesting offer for any metropolitan subscriber. True, it is more aimed at voice communication within the network and messaging in instant messengers and social networks;
• "My conversation" - the tariff includes 2 GB of traffic, 200 minutes of any local calls, unlimited on Tele2 and 50 local SMS for 199 rubles / month. A good solution for economical subscribers;
• "My online" - tariff plan includes 12 GB of traffic, 500 minutes to any Russian phones, unlimited within the network, 50 SMS within Russia and unlimited traffic for social networks and instant messengers. The subscription fee is 399 rubles/month;
• "My Online+" - 30 GB of basic traffic, 1500 minutes within Russia, 50 SMS to local numbers, unlimited intranet, unlimited traffic for social networks and instant messengers for 799 rubles / month.

Choose from the list the most suitable offer for you and enjoy high-speed Internet in 4G networks from Tele2.

When the allocated traffic package is exhausted, 5 additional Internet packages with a volume of 500 Mb at 50 rubles per package are provided. After that, access to the network is suspended.

To work in routers, modems and tablets, a special tariff "Internet for devices" was created. The subscription fee here is 299 rubles / month, which includes 7 GB of Internet. If this is too little, additional options are connected to the tariff:

• "20 GB" with a nightly unlimited - for 699 rubles / month. The option is optimal for modems and routers;
• "50 GB" with a nightly unlimited - subscribers are provided with 50 GB of traffic with a monthly fee of 999 rubles per month. A good solution for serious users who use the Internet on an ongoing basis.

After the provided traffic is exhausted, access to the network is suspended. To restore access, use additional traffic packages.