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Brought to you as a public service of the Open Spectrum Foundation (Stichting Open Spectrum), Amsterdam - Prague |
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NEWSDid Russia's top spectrum allocator resign?
"A key official of Russia's administration of communications, head of the Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz) Andrey Beskorovainy [picture at left], handed in a letter of voluntary resignation. Rossvyaz distributes frequencies, and thus is often criticized. "Communication experts think that the opponents of Russia's Ministry of Information and Communications in national security structures and TV broadcasting monopoly RTRS contributed to Beskorovainy's resignation. "Sources in the Ministry of Information and Communications confirmed that Andrey Beskorovainy had handed in a letter of voluntary resignation. Deputy Minister of IT and communications Boris Antonyuk refused to comment on the resignation yesterday. "Beskorovainy's advisor Pavel Morozov did not disprove the information. A high-placed source in [the] communications administration told Kommersant that Beskorovainy 'leaves voluntarily, due to health problems', and that 'all other theories, suggested by some structures, are absolutely untenable'. "Beskorovainy himself was unavailable yesterday, his cell phone did not respond... "RTRS and the Ministry of Information and Communications have been long competing for the right to head the program of digitizing Russian TV. The program's budget will reach $4 billion... "Some experts believe that Beskorovainy's resignation might be linked not only to the conflict between [the ministry of] communications administration and RTRS. They recall the conflict between Rossvyaz and national security agencies. "The conflict became apparent during the session of the State Committee on Radio Frequencies in October 2006. Communications administration managed to win a half-victory then. It got the permission to use frequencies [previously granted to the Ministry of Defense] for creating the 3G [cellular mobile] network. The Ministry of Defense took it as an offense. [See Kommersant's earlier report on that meeting: "Defense Ministry Maintains Air Standing" by Valery Kodachigov, 24 October 2006.] "Experts cannot say yet how Beskorovainy's resignation will affect Russia's IT market. Alexander Izosimov, Vympelkom's director general, thinks that the resignation will hardly change anything for his company: 'I don't think that Beskorovainy bears personal responsibility for the situation...' " "Ministry denies resignation of Rossvyaz head," Interfax, 23 November: "A high-ranking source in the Russian Information Technology and Communications Ministry has denied several media reports claiming that Andrei Beskorovainy has resigned as head of the Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz). 'Beskorovainy has not tendered any letter of resignation,' he said." [Spectrum Politics - 23 November 2006] |
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