T2 speeds up mobile internet in 15 Russian cities

Russian carrier T2 has completed a major network modernization project across 15 cities with populations above one million, raising average mobile internet speeds by about 25%.

Chelyabinsk recorded the largest improvement, at 33%. Networks in Moscow and St. Petersburg also became roughly one-quarter faster, despite already carrying some of the country’s heaviest traffic.

The work began in December 2025 and reached approximately 6,000 base stations within several months. T2 activated an additional LTE2300 layer at more than 4,000 sites. In eight regions, the number of stations using that layer increased 2.5 times.

The modernization covered:

• Moscow
• St. Petersburg
• Volgograd
• Chelyabinsk
• Perm
• Yekaterinburg
• Omsk
• Krasnoyarsk
• Krasnodar
• Nizhny Novgorod
• Novosibirsk
• Rostov-on-Don
• Samara
• Voronezh
• Kazan

For major operators, the main constraint in dense urban areas is often not coverage itself but how well the network handles concentrated demand. Adding spectrum and restructuring infrastructure can therefore deliver faster gains than expanding coverage in a single neighborhood.

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T2 says the upgrades have already improved connectivity for millions of subscribers. Their long-term effect will depend on how quickly traffic grows on the upgraded sections of the network.

Marta Barinova is a news editor specializing in software, streaming services, and changes to global technology-platform policies. She has written more than 140 articles.