The relocation of roadside networks in case of reconstruction will be paid for by the owners of the routes

The Ministry of Transport wants to add a clause to the agreements between the owner of roads and utilities that the relocation of infrastructure in the event of reconstruction must be paid for by the owner of the route. The rule should also apply to communication networks, the ministry says. Previously, operators paid for all transfers themselves.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the draft order of the Ministry of Transport, which defines the essential terms of contracts concluded by the owners of engineering communications with the owners of highways in the case of laying, moving or rebuilding networks in right-of-way. The document was published for public comment on November 2. It follows from it that one of the terms of the contract should be the obligation of the road owner to move or rebuild utilities at his own expense, if the reason was his initiative. For example, if we are talking about major repairs or reconstruction of a highway.

According to the head of the Association of Small Operators of Russia (unites 100 communication providers) Dmitry Galushko, the measure applies to communication companies, which will reduce the cost of moving networks: “Previously, in the case of repair or reconstruction of roads, their owners forced operators to pay for all work on moving networks. This was included in the contract.”

The draft order concerns telecom operators, although it mostly affects the interests of companies laying power lines, a Kommersant source in one of the large cellular companies clarifies. However, he emphasizes, the term “engineering communications” is not currently defined in Federal Law 257 (on highways and road activities). “In this regard, the issue of classifying communication lines as utilities remains at the discretion of road owners. That is, there is no clear answer to the question of who will bear the costs of transferring the infrastructure – operators or road owners,” believes Kommersant’s interlocutor.

“From our point of view, the draft order of the Ministry of Transport does not in any way change the current process of concluding agreements between telecom operators and highway owners,” MegaFon believes. “The main regulatory gap in this issue was and remains the lack of obligation of the highway owner to issue technical conditions for the construction one or another communication object. We as an industry expect transparency in this matter from the relevant transport regulator.” MTS, VimpelCom and Tele2 declined to comment.

The Ministry of Transport explained to Kommersant that, according to Federal Law No. 384 of 2009, the engineering support network is “a set of pipelines, communications and other structures intended for engineering and technical support of buildings and structures.” Based on the provisions of Art. 521 of the Urban Planning Code, engineering and technical support networks include electricity, gas, heat, water supply and sewerage networks, as well as communication networks. “Thus, based on the totality of legislative norms, the draft order of the Ministry of Transport also applies to communication networks,” the ministry assured.

The construction of networks along highways was one of the conditions for extending for ten years permissions to use the 800 MHz and 2600 MHz frequencies for LTE networks, but in 2022, the Ministry of Digital Development, as measures to support operators, released them from the obligation to cover federal highways and populated areas with LTE networks with a population of more than 1 thousand people. Now the authorities want to return to this norm (see Kommersant, June 20).

“Building networks along highways is generally more expensive than in populated areas, and the return on investment is lower, so it is not profitable for operators to invest in this,” explains Kommersant’s interlocutor in the telecom market. In his opinion, the current initiative of the Ministry of Transport will improve the attractiveness of such projects for companies.

Yulia Tishina