Russia’s LTE market is developing rapidly and will provide a major opportunity for equipment vendors this year, though 4G is rolling out in a very different pattern from that envisaged by the government a few years ago. The country, particularly when Dmitry Medvedev was president, aimed to create a central LTE network to be owned and shared by all the main operators; to promote fixed line incumbent Rostelecom as a mobile player to increase competition; and to push the bulk of the new LTE equipment procurements to homegrown providers. About three years later, the shared network run by Yota is owned by MegaFon; Rostelecom is putting its new mobile assets into a joint venture with Tele2; and some of the…