Telecom operators may be prohibited from placing infrastructure at the facilities of law enforcement agencies

The State Duma proposed to remove the objects of law enforcement agencies from the list of places where the infrastructure of telecom operators can be located. Such amendments can be made to the draft law on operators’ access to state property. Participants note that a mechanism that takes into account the peculiarities of building communication networks near the property of law enforcement agencies already exists. The transfer of infrastructure, experts say, may require additional costs.

At an expanded meeting of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Communications and IT, its chairman Alexander Khinshtein proposed to discuss the issue of placing the infrastructure of Russian telecom operators on buildings and structures belonging to law enforcement agencies, defining a list of objects where this is allowed.

To do this, they can amend the bill on the procedure for access of telecom operators to state property.

Mr. Khinshtein believes that law enforcement agencies should be removed from the list of state facilities on which the infrastructure of telecom operators can be installed: “There can be no free access to the facilities of the FSB, the National Guard or the Ministry of Internal Affairs.”

The draft law on amendments to the law “On Communications” was developed by the Ministry of Digital Development and submitted to the State Duma on February 1 (see “Kommersant” of February 2). It follows from it that the Federal Antimonopoly Service is assigned the authority to control the conditions for placing communication networks on state-owned objects – buildings, structures, roofs and supports, as well as to check the procedure for the formation of fees for the use of such property by operators. The document is intended to create “transparency in the system of interaction between telecom operators and authorities”, if adopted, it will enter into force on September 1.

The draft law already provides for cases of motivated refusal to use real estate owned by state bodies when placing communication networks, Tele2 says: prescribed by law.” Thus, they believe in Tele2, the document in its current version allows “to take into account the features of the objects of the power unit.” Moreover, they emphasize in the company, telecom operators are located at all facilities on the basis of contracts, and on the part of the authorities there must be “interest and consent” to the installation of equipment. MTS and MegaFon declined to comment. In “Vympelcom” “Kommersant” did not answer.

Most likely, the state simply does not want to close the objects of law enforcement agencies to outsiders, Dmitry Galushko, general director of OrderCom, believes: “In order to maintain communication facilities on the territory of such institutions, operators need to have access to them, and this creates a risk of penetration by uncontrolled persons.” He believes that the restriction will not significantly affect the quality of coverage, since operators will be able to place infrastructure in neighboring territories and houses.

The interlocutor of Kommersant on the market specified that now the base stations of telecom operators can be located at the facilities of law enforcement agencies in the regions, for example, next to military units.

Companies could face problems if the new rules require infrastructure to be removed, adds TelecomDaily CEO Denis Kuskov: “Operators will have to spend money on reinstalling communication networks, while city authorities or private owners may oppose the placement of equipment on their territory.”

Vadim Krasnikov, Tatiana Isakova