Draft strategy: Operators allowed to hike tariffs above inflation

MOSCOW, Aug 15 (PRIME) -- Russian operators will be able to raise tariffs above inflation in some cases and use foreign equipment sometimes, according to a draft connection strategy till 2035 released by the Digital Development Ministry on Tuesday.

“The document is aimed at formation of a promising and competitive image of the connection industry,” the draft read.

“If a connection operator reinvests a significant portion of additional profit in important projects of connection networks development, mastering of new technologies, including those based on national technical and commercial servicing, to reach the goals of the current strategy, indexation can be allowed for such a connection operator of the tariffs by the level exceeding the consumer prices index by an amount set by the regulators,” the document also said.

The draft also tolerates the use in the unified connection network of foreign equipment considered reliable.

The ministry also said that the operators can enjoy benefits in placing connection equipment on the government and municipal authorities’ facilities, and those built with budget money fully or partially.

LTE

Base stations of LTE and earlier generations will be fully replaced with local equipment in 2031–2035, when 5G networks on local equipment will be unrolled in all the cities with more than 100,000 residents.

“As of the end of 2022, about 10% of the mobile connection operators in the world decided to stop supporting 3G technology. Till 2030, most of the mobile connection operators will disconnect 3G networks and re-use the freed radio frequency resource for more effective and modern technologies of 4G and/or 5G. It is expected that 81% of mobile subscribers in Russia will use the LTE technology and 2G and 3G will service 7% and 4%, respectively,” the strategy read.

The document also says that the country may start commercial exploitation of 6G networks in 2031–2035. It read that unrolling of 6G networks may start in the world in 2030.

Traffic

The ministry suggested getting rid of network neutrality and introduce payment for exploitation of connection infrastructure for the major Internet companies. Network neutrality ensures that all data on the Internet is treated equally by Internet service providers and authorities, regardless of content, user, platform, application, or device.

“Now, in the climate of the mature market of Internet services and their suppliers in Russia, whose capitalization and the volume of business have become comparable or even bigger than capitalization and business of connection operators, the principle effective at the previous stage of development, has become irrelevant,” the ministry said.

The document also puts forward the idea of joint use of radio frequencies by civilians and the military.

Russia will strive to raise the volume of cross-border transit traffic in the southern and eastern directions by more than 40 times by 2035 to 280 Tbit/s.

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