Experts: Mobile traffic speed soars in Moscow, declines in regions

MOSCOW, Mar 1 (PRIME) -- The mobile Internet average speed in Moscow increased 32% on the year in February and decreased 7% in all the other regions of Russia, news and research agency TelecomDaily said on Wednesday in a research.

“TelecomDaily has seen a fast change in speed of the mobile Internet between Moscow and the other Russian regions since the beginning of 2023. The average mobile Internet speed in the capital city amounted to 34.7 Mbit/s, up 32% on the year, in February. On the contrary, it decreased 7% to 18.3 Mbit/s in the other regions,” the researcher said.

The reason behind the rise in speed in Moscow is a fall in mobile Web traffic, whose volumes stopped growing for the first time on the record amid blockings of foreign Internet resources, TelecomDaily General Director Denis Kuskov said.

“There is also the second factor, which can be named as alarming. Amid the deficit in network equipment, the operators’ efforts are now focused on the development of network infrastructure in the largest Russian cities as the highest demand is there,” he said.

“Besides, any problems with connection in Moscow or St. Petersburg can seriously hurt the public image of a provider. On the contrary, nobody will notice if Internet speed will slow down by 20 to 30% in a remote district center,” Kuskov added.

According to TelecomDaily’s experts, the fall in speed in the regions could be stopped by refarming of the 900 MHz frequencies, which also needs purchase and installation of new network equipment.

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