The State Duma approved free access to residential buildings for all telecom operators

“When there is no agreement among the comrades …” – the phrase from Krylov’s fable describes the situation in the State Duma in the best possible way, when the deputies decided the fate of the long-suffering amendments on liberation from “telecom slavery”. By the first reading, which took place on Thursday, it turned out that there were three bills. They are like the notorious swan, crayfish and pike, all about different things. By the end of the heated discussion, Internet providers, public utilities, and even the head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Maksut Shadayev, grabbed their hearts.

The fact that there are actually three bills on providing non-discriminatory access to telecom operators to residential buildings (as the initiative to abolish “telecom slavery” is officially called) came as a surprise to a wide audience. Before the first reading in the lower house, most sympathizers believed that the amendments were the only ones and were developed by their deputies Alexander Khinshtein and Sergei Pakhomov.

It wasn’t there. Like mushrooms after rain, two more bills similar in name, but completely different in meaning, have grown on the agenda of the meeting of the State Duma for June 29. All three were numbered 24, but with indexes 1, 2, 3. The deputies had to disassemble this three-headed “serpent of Gorynych” literally by bones. At first, no one seemed to understand: what, in fact, is the problem and why change anything at all? The Internet is in the houses, everything works. Where are the dissatisfied?

The co-author of the first bill Alexander Khinshtein tried to clarify:

– Half of all apartment buildings in the country are served by just two telecom operators. A third of the houses – one operator. That is, two-thirds of the country’s residents do not have the right to choose a provider, which is confirmed by the growth of citizens’ complaints to the FAS. According to a VTsIOM survey, 76 percent of citizens want to choose an operator on their own and are unhappy that the management company is now imposing an operator on them, Khinshtein said.

The head of the Duma Committee on Information Policy recalled the main provisions of his bill. According to the meaning of the amendments, management companies will cease to be decision-making centers: which operator can enter the house and connect residents, and which entrance to the high-rise building is ordered. Providers will not pay for placing their equipment in the house (now they pay management companies, where this money goes is a mystery). General meetings of owners for the admission of the telecom operator to the house will not be needed (now they are needed and often the protocols are forged by employees of the “managers”). Homeowners will be able to enter into direct contracts with providers.

The second bill, authored by deputies Galina Khovanskaya and Alexander Strelyukhin, is a complete semantic opposite. No wonder that Mrs. Khovanskaya caustically suggested Khinshtein “not to go into someone else’s monastery with your charter.”

– You read the practice of the Supreme Court! – Khovanskaya decided to go with trump cards. – There is a practice where it is clearly stated: the operator needs to pay a fee (for placing equipment in the house. — Approx. “MK”) and there should be a general meeting. Yes, and Rospotrebnadzor for the general meeting. And the Ministry of Justice supported our bill.

The third bill only added to the confusion. It was developed by three senators who have already resigned. These amendments were made as much as five years ago, which means they are morally obsolete. And in general, in the sense they are in the interests of providers.

But the deputies already, it seems, were not so interested in whose specific interests which bill out of the three was. There are more important problems here.

“Who will control the work on installing the equipment of providers so that there are no holes in the walls,” deputy Oksana Dmitrieva asked herself. The colleague’s tirade was supported by the head of the State Duma Committee on Family Affairs, Nina Ostanina. She said that the case of the “broken roof” by the prayers of the telecom operator exists in reality. There is such an unfortunate house in the Orenburg region. Graduates of orphanages, and disabled people, live in it. Nine years ago, the operator dismantled the base station from the roof of the house, broke through the roof and caused a flood. The house was declared emergency, but the residents in it still suffer to this day.

The deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Alexei Kurinny looked into the bright future and suggested that the discussion was useless:

— The future belongs to wireless communication networks. In a year or two, no one will need our discussion, just like these bills, Kurinny predicted.

Khinshtein retorted: you never know what will happen in years. Today, the owners of apartments in high-rise buildings are suffering.

– Why should I ask the general meeting in my apartment which operator I should choose? Why does the general meeting have to decide how fast the Internet will work in my house? No need to go to my monastery with your charter! Khinshtein pricked Khovanskaya.

The latter did not remain in debt and proposed something completely revolutionary – to ban all wired Internet in general:

— I am for mobile communication! We all have smartphones with the Internet! We don’t need outdated equipment!

On this joyful note, the deputies proceeded to vote. The bills of Khovanskaya and the senators were rejected by the parliamentarians. Khinshtein’s amendments passed the first reading with 313 votes in favor and 23 against.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29060 dated June 30, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Battle of Khinshtein and Khovanskaya monasteries