Ethiopia for the people – Newspaper Kommersant No. 62 (7507) of 04/11/2023
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Russian mobile operators are improving roaming conditions in East African countries, including those where previously their subscribers did not even have access to the Internet. In addition to Sudan, Syria and Somaliland, operators are expanding their presence in Oceania and Latin America. Experts draw attention to the growth of organized tourist flow to some of these countries, in particular to Ethiopia and Venezuela. In the case of less popular areas, in their opinion, we can talk about political agreements.
Kommersant has interviewed key Russian mobile operators (MTS, VimpelCom, MegaFon, Tele2) about their plans to revise international roaming conditions.
Vimpelcom announced that they are going to provide customers who are roaming in Ethiopia, Sudan and Venezuela with 1 GB of Internet for 450 rubles from May. in a day. Now, according to the operator’s website, Internet access in roaming in these countries is charged according to the postpaid model – 768 rubles. for 1 MB. In addition, VimpelCom intends to reduce the cost per minute of incoming and outgoing calls from 200 to 45 rubles.
A Tele2 representative told Kommersant that the operator is still approving a plan for roaming activities in preparation for the new season, but clarified that since February 1, Tele2 has opened data transmission in roaming in unrecognized Somaliland, and since March 29 – in Syria.
The operator also expanded the Unlimited Internet Abroad service to Syria, Kiribati and Belize, increased quotas for high-speed Internet traffic in the UAE, Macau and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and also reduced the cost of calls in Ethiopia, BiH and Kiribati. Tele2 explained that “they are closing previously uncovered destinations, because customers also travel to non-trivial countries.”
MegaFon told Kommersant that they had launched preferential roaming tariffs for neighboring countries (Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, etc.). “Over the past year, we have noticed the growing interest of Russians in these countries in the summer,” they noted. At the same time, the operator expects “demand to continue” for trips to the UAE, Turkey and Southeast Asian countries (Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand).
MTS did not begin to report on past or planned changes in roaming, but emphasized that, “despite the growth in the exchange rate, they do not increase the cost of options for subscribers.”
After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the UAE has become one of the most popular destinations for Russians for both leisure and business. According to the FSB Border Service for 2022, Russians made 1.2 million trips to the country. This is double the figure for 2021 and 21.2% more than before the pandemic, in 2019. Only 13.4 thousand trips were made to Venezuela. However, the direction showed an increase of almost 65% due to programs of tour operators based on Conviasa flights and Pegas Touristik charter programs. Russians made 14.9 thousand trips to Ethiopia last year, the flow increased by 20%.
Ethiopia, along with Venezuela, is developing in the domestic tourism market through direct flights, explains Dmitry Gorin, vice president of the Russian Union of Tourism Industry. The expert adds that Addis Ababa is also considered by travelers as a transport hub for connecting flights to Latin America, Asia and Africa.
The border service does not disclose data on the number of trips to Kiribati, Belize, Somalia, BiH. Mr. Gorin notes that there is no organized tourist flow to these countries, destinations can only be considered for individual trips. Also, according to the expert, tourism to Syria is also limited (according to the estimates of the FSB Border Service, in 2022 Russians made 17,000 trips to the country, almost half as many as in 2021).
New agreements to improve roaming conditions were most likely concluded individually at the level of individual countries, MForum analyst Aleksey Boyko believes. “Before, operators tended to work with roaming hubs that gave access to roaming in dozens, if not hundreds of countries. Agreements with them are still in effect, but I do not rule out that in the future they will have to be renegotiated on less favorable terms,” he says. The choice of a number of “exotic” countries, in his opinion, could be due primarily to “political, non-civil agreements” regardless of the real flow of tourists and businessmen.
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