Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin instructed to finalize the strategy for the development of the communications industry until 2035

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin instructed to finalize the strategy for the development of the communications industry until 2035: operators need to modernize their networks and accelerate the transition to Russian 5G and LTE base stations, for which the government will allocate up to 3.5 billion rubles. But market participants say that they are already actively working to improve network bandwidth. The funds pledged by the state, experts emphasize, will be enough for a maximum of one operator’s network in one region.

Mikhail Mishustin held a strategic session at which he was presented with a draft strategy for the development of the communications industry until 2035, prepared by the Ministry of Digital Development together with the largest operators. The office of the relevant Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko reported that the text of the strategy would be finalized in accordance with the comments, after which it would be approved.

The prime minister himself said that telecom operators “should not stop at providing mobile services in the LTE standard.”

At the same time, they must increase the capacity and speed of data transfer by upgrading networks. Mr. Mishustin added that the government and market participants have launched a roadmap for the development of modern networks, which will accelerate the transition of the industry to 5G and LTE base stations. According to him, the card will include “several state support programs”, including state subsidies for the manufacture of high-tech devices in the amount of about 3.5 billion rubles.

The preliminary version of the strategy stated that over the past ten years, the contribution of communications to GDP has halved, to a 30-year low (see “Kommersant” dated May 19). According to the authors of the document, in the near future, market growth will be helped by the accession of new territories to the Russian Federation, the interest of developing countries in domestic solutions and the rejection of outdated technologies, including 3G. At the same time, the implementation of 5G may be delayed until 2030. Moreover, all civilian communication networks in the country will be initially “designed for the needs of public administration, defense, security and law and order.”

According to the head of the State Duma Committee on Communications and IT, Alexander Khinshtein, the final text of the strategy contains 25 regulatory initiatives, including the provision of tax incentives to satellite manufacturers, ensuring non-discriminatory access for placing communication networks on the infrastructure of related industries, including along roads, electricity networks , wholesale electricity prices for data centers and others (see “Kommersant” of June 14).

Telecom operators daily carry out activities to improve bandwidth and expand network coverage, a Kommersant source in one of the large companies emphasizes: “In addition, refarming and optimization of the frequency resource are being carried out.” This, he explains, makes it possible to increase the throughput and data transfer rate without building additional base stations (BS). MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom did not respond to Kommersant, Tele2 declined to comment.

If the amount of the subsidy that the state intends to allocate to the industry concerns the construction of a new infrastructure based on 5G or LTE, then 3.5 billion rubles. may be enough to equip one large region or Moscow with base stations on the network of only one operator, says Alexei Slukin, author of the Telekommunalka Telegram channel. According to him, earlier the amount of investments in large operators could reach 300 billion rubles, which allowed them to build and upgrade up to 50 thousand sites a year: “The current money is enough to install no more than 600 new BSs.”

Vadim Krasnikov