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December 2020 www.intellinews.com I Page 18
Russia's Sberbank to operate GosTec state services platform
Russia's largest bank Sberbank will set up and operate GosTec, an ecosystem of public services and state data, Kommersant daily reported on December 8.
Sberbank's bid for the creation of GosTec for RUB900mn ($12.3mn) was the only one, even though previously state majors such as VTB Bank, Rostelecom integrated telecom company, and Post of Russia also previously had intended to bid.
GosTec is planned to become a single centralised IT platform for public services for private individuals and businesses. The platform would have to be able to support at least 100mn total profiles and simultaneous sessions of 0.12mn users.
The deadline for the engine of the platform to be designed by Sberbank is set in the tender at May 31 2022.
Analysts surveyed by Kommersant warn that Sberbank could become a monopolist on the future market of online public services, which could amount to RUB40-60bn annually.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, in September Sberbank in an interactive presentation kicked off Sber Universe digital ecosystem, introducing new products, services and devices. The bank now targets 100% annual non-financial revenues growth, with non-financial revenues reaching 5% of the total top line by 2023 and achieving 20-30% by 2030.
MegaFon launches commercial VoLTE services in Tajikistan
MegaFon Tajikistan has started offering commercial VoLTE services. The company said the move marked a first for the local market.
VoLTE services will provide “high quality IP voice” via MegaFon’s 4G network - this allows for a faster setup for calls and the ability to use internet connectivity during a call. MegaFon Tajikistan launched its first LTE offering in September 2015 and extended services to 26 towns by November 2019. It added another
17 towns to this footprint within the next year. MegaFon alsp recently began offering 4G in the mountainous Shamsiddin Shokhin (Shurabad) district in Khatlon Region.
“Previously, during a call, the subscriber’s device returned to the 3G voice network, which led to a loss of internet speed. Now, both voice traffic and data are transmitted on the same network. This technology, which is being used in the Republic for the first time, will be available to the majority of subscribers using the mobile data transmission service,” Rafil Aglyamov, technical director at MegaFon Tajikistan, said.
“[VoLTE services would] be activated by network segments depending on the number of users whose phones support the VoLTE function...
With the same number of base stations, communication services can be used by three times more subscribers than in the 3G network,” MegaFon said.
Estonian parcel robot firm Cleveron eyes €30mn state loan
Cleveron, an Estonian automated parcel locker and parcel robot manufacturer, has applied for a loan of over €30mn from state credit agency KredEx. The money would be used to set up over 20,000 parcel vending machines across Estonia, including in private houses.
Most KredEx loans so far have been for firms hit by the effects of the pandemic, including shipping line Tallink, which received €100mn.
Both Foreign Trade and IT Minister Raul Siem and Economic Affairs Minister Taavi Aas said on