MegaFon CEO Khachatur Pombukhchan stated that Russian base station manufacturers are rapidly narrowing the technological gap with Chinese vendors. According to the company's assessment, Chinese solutions currently outperform European equipment.
Yadro is identified as the most systematically developing domestic manufacturer. MegaFon has already deployed one of the first Russian base stations in Nizhny Novgorod and conducted 5G network tests in Yekaterinburg.
The implementation process involves laboratory trials, testing, and pilot commercial operation. Pombukhchan noted that while domestic equipment is catching up to Chinese counterparts in technical parameters, challenges regarding equipment maturity remain.
Cost remains a significant limitation for Russian hardware. Pombukhchan explained that global vendors distribute R&D expenses across markets in hundreds of countries, whereas domestic companies operate within the scale of a 140 million population market.
