By the end of next year MTS, one of Russia’s leading mobile operators, has plans to invest an estimated $1.6m in start-ups that develop 5G tech based solutions, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported. A business incubator will be set up in Moscow to pursue the goal.

The mobile operator is interested in a range of cloud based services in remote gaming, new video streaming formats, Internet of Things solutions, data storage, and some others.

The best projects in the incubator may expect to first receive grant funding for advanced R&D and then investments from MTS. The operator may elect to purchase technology it likes, or hire a start-up team to accomplish tasks.

The initiative will kick off in early September 2019; applications will be processed starting today already.