Advertising will not get through – Business – Kommersant

The Ministry of Digital Development has developed an initiative according to which operators will have to provide subscribers with a spam call blocking service free of charge. This, according to the regulator, should reduce the volume of auto-dialing, which is prohibited by the law “On Advertising”. Telecom operators support the initiative, but experts note that it threatens companies with financial losses, as some took a fee to block spam. Also, the voice traffic of operators may be reduced by 3-5%.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the draft resolution of the Ministry of Digital Transformation on the procedure for the provision of telephone services, published on regulation.gov.ru today. It follows from it that, if technically possible, the telecom operator will have to block “automated telephone calls that are contrary to advertising legislation, or other automated telephone calls made without a contract for the provision of communication services with a telecom operator or not provided for by the contract.”

The blocking will affect exactly auto-dialing – its telecom operator can determine it using special software, the Ministry of Digital Development explained: “Auto-dialing has become a common tool for promoting services. He does not find a response from subscribers, therefore Art. 18 of the Law “On Advertising”. The ministry noted that the initiative has already been discussed with operators and, in their opinion, the innovation can become not only an obstacle to spam, but also an obstacle to fraudsters.

It is also proposed to make a free and built-in service by default to alert the subscriber about the spam call industry. For example, when calling from a medical institution, “medical center” will be displayed on the smartphone screen, “bank” from the financial sector, and so on.

“There will be fewer advertising calls, and the subscriber will understand who is calling and whether it is worth picking up the phone,” notes the Ministry of Digital Development.

By mid-summer, the proportion of subscribers who encountered spam calls and scammers reached 70% (see “Kommersant” of June 22). Then the experts explained the situation as “social tension”.

Telecom operators already have services to block spam calls. So, on the MegaFon website it is said that the caller ID of a spam call is provided free of charge, at Tele2 the service costs 3 rubles. in a day. On the MTS website, blocking spam calls also costs 3 rubles. per day after the first free month, and number identification – 1 rub. per day.

Tele2 supports the initiative of the Ministry of Digital Development, as the number of unwanted calls is growing: “In general, there is an opportunity for implementation, for legal organizations that inform customers with his consent, the initiative does not carry risks.” The company refused to estimate the financial losses from disabling the fee for the spam call blocking service.

Sergei Khrenov, Director of Fraud and Revenue Loss Prevention at MegaFon, believes that the initiative of the Ministry of Digital Development will help fight spam calls more effectively. Vimpelcom (Beeline brand) tells Kommersant that such a system is already being tested in one of the regions of the Russian Federation. There is no information about the spam call blocking service on the operator’s website. MTS declined to comment.

The desire of the Ministry of Digital to restrict subscribers from spam should be supported by operators, but over the many years of the existence of this advertising model, an extensive pool of businesses has formed that will suffer losses from its implementation, says Alexei Boyko, an analyst at MForum Analytics. “Among them, for example, are advertising agencies that sell this service, developers of spam calling software, developers of third-party spam detection applications, as well as operators themselves, since they provided a spam call blocking service for money,” says Alexei Boyko. In addition, he adds, voice traffic will be reduced by 3-5%, which may also indirectly affect the financial performance of operators.

Timofey Kornev