Irtea, a company owned by a major Moscow-based telecom operator, is moving toward producing domestic 5G and 4G base stations in 2024. This development is highlighted by reports from Kommersant, which quotes Irtea’s general director, Dmitry Lakontsev, about the plan.
According to Lakontsev, production will take place at the Tomsk Mikran plant, leveraging existing facilities to assemble the next generation of network equipment. The target for the first wave of devices is a batch of about 1,000 units in 2024, featuring both 4G and 5G base stations. Looking further ahead, Irtea aims to scale output to roughly 5,000–10,000 devices annually as demand and production pipelines stabilize. Initial equipment tests are planned in Moscow and the Moscow region during the first half of 2024, ensuring that local teams validate performance and reliability before full-scale rollout (Kommersant).
Industry observers note that, as of now, domestic components form a minority share of Irtea’s base stations, estimated at under 10 percent. Yet the company declares that this share will progressively rise as suppliers expand and new local capabilities come online. The shift toward greater domestic content aligns with broader national goals of supply chain localization and innovation within Russia’s telecom sector (Kommersant).
Independent analysts estimate the price point for an Irtea base station in the current market to be between 1.5 and 2 million rubles. This price is viewed as competitive when compared with global peers and similar offerings from other manufacturers. In practice, foreign counterparts such as Nokia, Ericsson, and Huawei provide comparably priced solutions, which positions Irtea as a potential domestic alternative for operators seeking cost-efficient 4G and 5G infrastructure within Russia and neighboring markets. The pricing and performance expectations underscore a broader trend toward balancing cost, reliability, and localization of equipment for regional networks (Kommersant).
In related technological progress, Russia has earlier pursued environmentally conscious electromagnetic camouflage strategies, reflecting a broader push toward sustainable and secure networking technologies in the domestic telecom landscape. This broader context suggests that Irtea’s initiative may be part of a wider effort to modernize infrastructure while maintaining resilience and energy efficiency across national networks (Kommersant).