Russia's four largest mobile carriers switched on fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless networks in 16 cities on September 11, 2026, giving more than 10 million residents access to the new standard, according to Russia's Ministry of Digital Development.
MTS, Megafon, beeline and T2 all launched 5G in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. Coverage elsewhere depends on the carrier.
- Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg: MTS, Megafon, beeline and T2
- Novosibirsk and Kazan: Megafon and MTS
- Samara: beeline and Megafon
- Veliky Novgorod, Krasnodar, Tver and Nizhny Novgorod: Megafon
- Volgograd, Chelyabinsk, Perm and Krasnoyarsk: T2
- Ufa: MTS
- Yaroslavl: beeline
The Ministry of Digital Development said access also depends on the handset. Android users can connect if their phone supports the new-generation standard. iPhone owners' access depends on whether Apple adds support for Russian encryption; without it, iPhone 12 and later models, which already contain the necessary hardware, still cannot use 5G in Russia.
Russia's State Commission on Radio Frequencies set the terms for rolling out fifth-generation networks, allowing operators to reuse frequencies already assigned to LTE. Anna Ovsyannikova, associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Data Analysis at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Lenta.ru that operators were permitted at launch to use foreign-made base stations already in operation before September 1, 2026, meaning carriers did not need to fully replace existing infrastructure to launch the service. She said 5G could reach 50 more Russian cities by the end of 2026.
What 5G is and how it differs from 4G
5G stands for fifth generation, the newest standard of mobile wireless data transfer, designed to speed up how information is sent and received. The Ministry of Digital Development says the technology is meant for digitalizing industrial plants, operating driverless vehicles and robotics, advancing telemedicine, running smart city systems, connecting sensors and meters, and building private industrial networks.
Ovsyannikova said 5G is often described simply as faster mobile internet, but its value goes far beyond speed. She said that while 3G made mobile internet mainstream and 4G enabled comfortable video streaming, navigation and cloud services, 5G was designed from the outset for a world of machines, industrial sensors, cameras, robots and transport, and comparing generations on speed alone is like judging a car only by its engine power.
Alevtina Shatalova, senior lecturer in the Department of Information Technology at the Financial University, said 5G requires a denser network of base stations known as small cells, along with millimeter-wave, high-frequency signals. Millimeter waves carry data at high speed but have a short range and struggle to pass through obstacles such as tall buildings, so they require more towers.
Shatalova also described network slicing, in which a single physical network is divided into several independent virtual networks, for example one serving video and another controlling robots, without the slices interfering with each other. She said she tells her students that physical resources are pooled together and then flexibly allocated to tasks according to the quality of service each one needs.
Speed and technical specifications
Peak data transfer speed on 5G can reach 20 gigabits per second, 20 times faster than 4G. Latency is 10 to 30 times lower than on 4G. Shatalova said ping can drop as low as 1 millisecond, compared with roughly 30 to 50 milliseconds on 4G, meaning a command for a remote operation arrives almost instantly and a driverless car can react faster than a human.
Network density is also far higher: up to 1 million devices can connect per square kilometer, so even at a concert with millions of attendees, connection quality should not degrade. Ovsyannikova cautioned that the 20-gigabit figure is an international requirement for 5G-family technology rather than a speed guaranteed to every smartphone owner, though she said the new generation of connectivity will still be significantly better than 4G.
Carriers often use the terms LTE and 4G interchangeably because users see no practical difference, but they are not identical. LTE was one of the first fourth-generation standards, effectively a transitional step between 3G and 4G.
What changes for users and businesses
Ovsyannikova said the basic principle of connecting a smartphone or sensor to a base station will not change for users, but the radio network itself becomes far more flexible. Modern antenna systems can use frequencies more efficiently, handle many more simultaneous connections and direct signal where it is needed, while lower frequencies give broad coverage and higher frequencies add capacity in areas with heavy traffic, she said.
Shatalova said 5G is less about faster internet for the public and more about infrastructure shifting from serving people to serving a mass of connected technologies. For industry, medicine, autonomous driving and other fields that need ultra-low latency combined with mass connectivity, she said it opens entirely new possibilities, including wireless links for robotic arms and automated guided vehicles in smart manufacturing, remote ultrasound scans and even remote surgery through ultra-sensitive manipulators in telemedicine, and real-time data exchange between vehicles and road infrastructure that could reduce accidents. Ovsyannikova added that 5G itself does not create robots, artificial intelligence or digital twins, but is the communication infrastructure that lets such technologies work together.
Is 5G a health risk?
In 2019-2021, residents in some countries and Russian regions protested against 5G towers amid claims the new technology's radiation could harm health. Official medical research does not support those fears: radio-frequency electromagnetic field exposure from 5G systems remains below the limits set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, known as ICNIRP.
Grigory Chizh, an oncologist at the Moscow International Oncology Center, told Lenta.ru that fears about 5G stem from a belief that electromagnetic radiation could damage cellular DNA and potentially cause cancer through genetic mutations. He said that belief is not supported by existing data, citing a large prospective study published in 2024 that followed more than 250,000 participants and found mobile phone use was not linked to a higher risk of brain tumors. Chizh said 5G signals, like other mobile signals, are non-ionizing radio-frequency electromagnetic fields that lack the energy to alter DNA structure, so claims of a cancer risk from 5G radiation currently have no scientific support.
How to turn on 5G
Apple has not added support for Russian high-speed networks at the firmware level, so 5G cannot currently be activated on an iPhone in Russia; that could change with a future iOS update. Abroad, where 5G is available, iPhone 12 and later models can use it by turning on 5G Auto under Settings, Cellular, Cellular Data Options, Voice and Data. On Android devices, users can typically find a 5G option under network or connection settings by selecting their SIM card and choosing Network Mode or Preferred Network Type, sometimes needing to restart the phone or toggle airplane mode to apply the change. Carriers may charge extra for using the 5G network.
