World Bank likes Russia’s broadband development, prospects

MOSCOW, Jan 22 (PRIME) -- Russia is developing its broadband Internet successfully as it has made its development a priority, the World Bank said on Thursday.

“One of the Russian Federation’s key strategic development objectives for the ICT (information and communications technology) sector is to leverage high technology and innovation to strengthen a modern, well diversified economy,” the bank said in A Sector Assessment: Broadband in Russia report.

“Many governments around the world view broadband as the foundational infrastructure that can drive social and economic development. Russia is no exception: broadband development is listed among the priorities of the Russian government.”

Russia has set one of the most ambitious broadband targets, considering the country’s geographic size and relatively low-population density. Russia plans to make 100 megabytes per second (Mbps), or Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB), available to 80% of Russian residents by 2018, with the ultimate goal of providing accessible and affordable broadband to 95% of households by 2020.

Making this communication infrastructure accessible to the broader middle class, as well as to those in the lower 40% income bracket, could potentially advance economic prosperity.

“Broadband is of strategic importance to Russia’s social and economic development due to its impact on job creation and productivity. In particular, broadband is essential for further leveraging software and IT engineering jobs, which are already well-established in Russia, and for bringing job opportunities to remote and isolated geographic areas,” the World Bank said.

Fixed broadband access is available for 56.5% of Russian households, while the rate for the E.U. is 79%.

“Russia is rapidly expanding its FTTH (Fiber-to-the-Home) network, leapfrogging many European countries that have copper-based broadband access infrastructure. Russia gained more FTTH subscribers in the second half of 2012 than the whole of the 27 E.U. countries put together. In 2014, decisions were made to ensure rapid growth of broadband access infrastructure based on fiber-optic networks,” the report read.

The research said mobile broadband access has ample room for growth, as Russia has one of the highest rates of mobile penetration in the world and the transition to 3G and 4G will be easier than in other markets.

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