Mobile TeleSystems, Russia’s largest carrier, is planning to spend up to 1.6 billion dollars (or roughly 37 billion rubles, which is far more fun to say) to roll out a national 3G network which they’re aiming to complete by 2012 — right around when some countries might be starting to implement 4G networks. A bit late, perhaps – but hey, faster speeds are never a bad thing.

According to MTS, the network upgrade should pay for itself; they expect it to generate at least 2 billion dollars in revenue by 2011.