PRESS: Bigger operators may sell storage capacities to small firms

MOSCOW, Sep 3 (PRIME) -- Russia’s major connection operators are getting ready to offer storage data services to regional players to comply with the data retention law, which could help bigger companies to compensate costs on raising capacities of storage facilities at least partially, business daily Kommersant reported on Monday.

The technology of fulfilling the law is still unclear, and regional operators are worried of excessive prices for such services.

MegaFon, one of the country’s top mobile operators, is sending out a questionnaire to smaller operators with inquiries about parameters of networks, the number of clients, incoming and outcoming traffic, and so forth. A MegaFon spokesperson said the company is receiving requests from regional operators for outsourcing of data storage systems.

“We’re analyzing demand, and then we’ll be able to decide on worthwhileness of such a service,” the spokesperson said.

The law obliges connection operators to store talks and text messages of their subscribers for six months from July 1, while Internet traffic must be stored for 30 days from October 1.

Major local mobile operator MTS is also studying provision of storage data services.

Head of Norsi-Trans, a manufacturer of solutions for connection operators, Sergei Ovchinnikov said the service can be offered as partial or full outsourcing.

“With partial outsourcing, small operators will have to install systems to record and store voice traffic, and content will be stored by bigger operators,” he said, adding that the costs will depend on parameters of a network, but major operators should first build such solutions themselves in line with government requirements, which have not been fully published yet.

A source told the daily that there is still no equipment for such services on the market, because the Digital Development Ministry has not issued an order on its certification.

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