Sergey Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, and Alexey Kornya, CEO of mobile network operator MTS, have signed an agreement on cooperation for the purposes of developing communication services and information-telecommunication technologies in the city of Moscow.

The agreement envisages pilot projects aimed at developing new digital technologies and communication services in Moscow, including in the fields of virtual and augmented reality, Internet of Things, Smart City, and 5G technologies. For these purposes the required information-telecommunication infrastructure will be created in the city.

The authorised agency responsible for implementing the agreement on behalf of Moscow is the city’s Department of Information Technology (DIT).

“Moscow is setting itself the task of reducing operator expenditure on creating infrastructure for the commercial launch of 5G by removing administrative barriers,” says Eduard Lysenko, head of DIT.

The agreement has been signed in light of the provisions of the state programme Digital Economy of the Russian Federation, which calls for the creation of pilot segments of the fifth generation mobile communication networks by the end of 2019 and the commercial launch of 5G by 2022.