As the largest country on the planet, Russian passive infrastructure is made up of 30-35,000 towers and 60-80,000 rooftops across its populated regions, most of which remain operator-captive. In a fiercely competitive MNO landcape with little experience of colocation, a couple of small towercos are steadily creating an independent towerco market in the country. For the last five years there have been rumours of towerco JVs, SLBs and BTS opportunities in the country, and most recently the entry of Tele2 offered a unique opportunity to attract tenants, but activity in the market has been frozen by the crash of the rouble in late 2014.
Russia and CIS FAQs
