Only honeycombs whistle across the steppe

The company of the Crimean operator K-Telecom, operating in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions under the +7Telecom brand, intends to complete the construction of communication networks on the land route connecting Crimea with the Rostov region by the end of July. After the explosion on the Crimean bridge, the traffic flow has increased significantly on the route, but mobile communications work only in cities. Despite the increased demand for communication services, experts warn of serious risks of building networks in territories where hostilities have not yet ended.

The mobile operator +7Telecom (a brand of the Crimean operator K-Telecom in Zaporozhye and Kherson regions) intends to fully provide mobile communications along the land route to Crimea, the so-called northern bypass, by the end of July, the company told Kommersant. The 460 km long route runs from Dzhankoy to Taganrog, connecting the peninsula with the mainland.

+7Telecom considers the project relevant due to the increased traffic on the route, it is also included in the company’s program for the development of communications in the annexed territories, calculated until 2027. Investment in construction in the company does not disclose. “Of the total length of the route, mobile coverage has already been provided for a section of 200 km – these are the territories of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, the first base stations in the DPR have also been put on the air, the rest are under construction,” + 7Telecom specified.

Tourists began to actively use the alternative road through Mariupol after the damage to the Crimean bridge due to the explosion on July 17. Since the night of July 18, reverse traffic has been resumed on it, a ferry crossing is operating. As of July 19, according to the data of the Crimean border department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, all automobile checkpoints in the north of Crimea are operating normally, “peak loads at the Dzhankoy checkpoint are recorded during daylight hours.”

Intourist representative Daria Domostroyeva says that customers are now quite actively using the road through new regions: most of them are not ready to give up their holidays. “The popularity of the route is growing as the image has improved in recent days, but it is still less popular than the usual way across the bridge,” says Sergey Romashkin, head of the Dolphin tour operator.

At the same time, in his opinion, tourists “are more concerned not with the safety of the way through Mariupol, but with everyday aspects”: the condition of the roadway, the inability to pay by card and use mobile communications, which now work in cities, but there is almost none on the route.

At the moment, the Republican Telecom Operator (Phoenix brand) and Lugakom (Mobile Communication Systems brand) operate in the DPR and LPR. Miranda-Media also operates in the DPR (the Crimean backbone telecom operator, 19.99% owned by Rostelecom). The listed operators did not answer “Kommersant”. MTS, MegaFon and Vimpelcom declined to comment.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation told Kommersant that the operators will provide communications throughout the entire land route to Crimea at their own expense: “The corresponding obligations were written down in the decision of the State Committee for Radio Frequencies when allocating frequencies.” Aleksey Slukin, editor of the Telekommunalka profile Telegram channel, estimates the cost of installing equipment for mobile communications on the land route from Dzhankoy to Taganrog at 241 million rubles: “About one communication station is needed per 10 km of the route, the cost of one support is about 6.5 mln rub. If communication has already covered 200 km of the route, then at the moment investments in the project amount to 130 million rubles.”

However, Kommersant’s interlocutor on the market recalls that the operator during construction may face many risks: from difficulties with connecting to power grids, the stability of radio relay equipment in combat conditions. The expert also believes that even after the construction is completed, it will not be easy to maintain the equipment’s operability: “There will be zones on the route where there will be no communication or it will work intermittently due to military special communications.”

Tatyana Isakova, Alexandra Mertsalova