Russia’s three main mobile operators, MTS, MegaFon and VimpelCom – plus national broadband operator Rostelecom – were all awarded licences suitable for LTE by the Russian regulator today.

Earlier this week, Roskomnadzor gave permission for eight firms to participate in the auction process. TTK, Summa Telecom, Tele2 Voronezh and Tele2 Omsk were the ones to lose out, though the size of the winning bids is not yet known. 

Under the terms of the 800MHz (791-862MHz) licences, the operators must launch LTE services by 1 June 2013 and invest at least RUB15 billion (US$457 million) a year to meet coverage requirements. Six regional Russian markets must be live by 2013, while nationwide coverage is expected by the end of 2019 – with several coverage targets set for the intervening years.

The licence awards come at the same time as Alisher Usmanov, the Russian billionaire and majority owner of MegaFon, is thought to be closing a deal to merge MegaFon’s assets with Scartel, the firm that runs Russia’s Yota-branded LTE network.

Yota – a former WiMAX operator – was transformed last year into a JV between MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom and Rostelecom to build a shared LTE network. But the project has run into various problems, and several of the operators involved are reportedly now looking at launching LTE outside of the Yota arrangement.

MegaFon proceeded to ink a deal with Yota in February 2012 to use the latter’s LTE spectrum, enabling it to become the first of the big three operators to launch commercial 4G services (Yota has access to MegaFon’s network for its own operations in return). MegaFon subsequently switched on LTE networks in Moscow, Krasnodar and Novosibirsk and Sochi, the venue for the Winter Olympics in 2014. It plans to go live in at least four more cities by year-end.

Meanwhile, MTS secured a TD-LTE licence (2595-2620 MHz) covering the Moscow area in February, but is also thought to be close to finalising a deal with Yota. Rostelecom is due to launch as an LTE MVNO (via Yota) in Moscow in September, while Yota itself is reportedly already live in Moscow, Sochi and Samara.