Russia continues to actively build base stations — they provide mobile communication and internet. But the growth rate has begun to slow down: networks are still expanding, but not as fast as before. The reason is the optimization of infrastructure and the commissioning of new networks.
In 2025, the number of base stations in the country increased by 8.12% — to more than 947 thousand. This is slightly lower than the 2024 figure, when the growth was 8.34%. In absolute terms, more than 76.9 thousand stations were added per year.
Most of all in Russia there are base stations of the 4G standard — more than 498 thousand, their number increased by 12% per year. Next come 2G networks — more than 278 thousand stations with a growth of 10%. At the same time, 3G continues to decline: they decreased by 8% — about 169 thousand.
Almost 17% of all base stations are concentrated in Moscow and the Moscow region — this is more than 159 thousand. In 2025, their number here increased by 5.7%. Among the regions with the largest increase are Krasnodar, Perm and Stavropol Territories, as well as the Rostov Region.
Operators claim that they are not reducing the pace of construction and continue the so-called refarming of frequencies — the redistribution of the spectrum for more modern technologies. Simply put, old 3G networks are gradually being turned off, and their frequencies are being transferred to 4G.
For example, VimpelCom launched more than 36 thousand base stations in a year, of which 27.1 thousand were LTE standard, as well as more than 5.3 thousand new sites. In 28 regions, the operator completely transferred frequencies from 3G to LTE, and in 80 regions reconfigured the 2100 MHz band for a modern network.
MegaFon reported that they are focusing on point-by-point infrastructure upgrades: in 2025 they built 3% more stations than the year before, and modernized 16% more. The company added that they have almost completed refarming throughout the country.
MTS plans to completely abandon 3G by the end of 2027. By the beginning of April, the operator had already transferred base stations from 3G to LTE in 57 cities in 27 regions. In T2, 37 thousand new base stations were connected in a year and the number of sites was increased by 8 thousand.
At the same time, the growth of mobile internet in 2025 slowed down sharply. If earlier traffic increased by 15–18% per year, then in 11 months of 2025 — only by 0.8%. This is associated, among other things, with internet shutdowns across the country. But voice traffic increased — by 12%.
T2 notes that, in general, mobile internet showed a slight increase, but in the Moscow region, consumption, as before, increased by about 20%.
Experts explain: operators are investing more and more in networks — this accounts for up to 50–70% of all capital expenditures. At the same time, building new facilities is more expensive than modernizing existing ones.
Now companies are focusing on optimization: they are decommissioning outdated 3G equipment and replacing it with more efficient 4G. Additional influence was exerted by messenger restrictions — the load on voice communication increased, which is why operators became more careful about turning off 3G and slightly slowed down the redistribution of frequencies.
Networks are being built most actively in the southern regions and the Perm Territory — due to the growth of domestic tourism, peak loads, participation in state programs and still weak coverage in rural and mountainous areas.
An additional factor that affects the development of the network is the cost of building infrastructure. Evgeny Chermashentsev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the New Towers Group of Companies, is convinced that the main problem is the imperfection of regulation. According to him, infrastructure operators are not actually singled out as a separate part of the industry, although they are the ones building most of the base stations today. Due to difficulties with access to land, connection to power grids and differences in rules from region to region, the process becomes more expensive and slower.
This complicates our work. Makes it more expensive, more risky. The more expensive it is for us to build, the more expensive the communication, but the most important thing is that it hinders the technological development of communication.
With clearer rules and a clear status for infrastructure operators, network development could be faster and cheaper, the industry participant is convinced.