MOSCOW, October 1 - RAPSI. The Moscow Commercial Court has held against Rostelecom in its repeat request for interim relief in its lawsuit against Skartel which seeks to force Skartel to provide access to its high-speed LTE network, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com).

The court did not believe that the evidence for the circumstances Rostelecom reported was sufficient to impose interim relief.

The court first rejected granting interim relief in the case on September 10.

Skartel is part of the Yota brand.

The court papers state that Rostelecom's lawsuit was registered on September 6.

Rostelecom and three other mobile communications providers - MTS, Megafon and Vimpelcom - signed a letter of intent in March 2011 to render services using Skartel's infrastructure.

In autumn 2011, the parties signed a memorandum of understanding, stipulating the primary details of their agreement. In April 2012, they signed a preliminary cooperation agreement in Moscow, according to which Rostelecom would implement LTE services in test mode on July 1, and LTE services in commercial mode on September 1.

However, the primary contract was never signed as Skartel could not settle on a final version, Kommersant newspaper reported earlier, citing a Rostelecom source.

In autumn 2011, Skartel became the first provider licensed to build a federal LTE network. Rostelecom, MTS, Megafon and VimpelCom were only granted the license in summer 2012 after having won a tender for federal LTE licenses. Megafon works on the Skartel network. It is part of the holding that owns Skartel.

Skartel has finished receiving applications from providers to work on its network as part of the MVNO scheme. It is obliged to grant access to other providers to its network due to a Federal Antimonopoly Service order, issued in response to Skartel and Megafon's integration into a holding.