According to the Prime-Tass business news agency, Russia’s Federal Arbitration Court in the Moscow District has rejected a lawsuit filed by Summa Telecom claiming its rights for frequencies suitable for the development of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. The decision meant that the court upheld the decision by the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeals, in October 2012. The issue centres on frequencies in the 2.5GHz-2.7GHz band.
Previously, in July 2012 it was reported that a 70MHz block of the original frequency allocation – which is now held by WiMAX-turned-LTE operator Scartel (Yota) – could belatedly revert to Summa, although the reasoning behind the legal decision was never disclosed. However, in September the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeals cancelled the lower court’s earlier decision.
Summa Telecom, part of tycoon Ziyavudin Magomedov’s Summa Group, was granted the frequencies in 2006, but its stuttering plans were rendered moot in October 2010 when the State Radio Frequency Commission (SRFC) announced it was to repeat its 2006 tenders for the frequencies. The licences, which chiefly applied to Siberia and the Far-East region, were ostensibly cancelled when the operator complained about the lengthy delay in receiving its spectrum.