Traffic exchange prices for providers are rising

Prices for traffic exchange for broadband providers, mobile operators, Internet providers and other market participants are rising. One of the major operators, Piter-IX, was the first to announce the indexation of tariffs, almost doubling since February. He uses points including in Europe, so, among other things, he justifies the rise in price by the fall of the ruble. Another reason is the installation of equipment to comply with the Sovereign Internet Law. Analysts are convinced that other traffic exchange points will also revise prices, although for now they promise to maintain them.

The large Russian operator of traffic exchange points Piter-IX will change its tariff policy from February 2024, according to the company’s message in the industry chat. Piter-IX includes more than 20 exchange points in seven countries (including Estonia, Latvia, Finland, etc.). Its services are used by more than 400 organizations.

It follows from the company’s order on the new tariff line that the subscription fee for a port capacity of 10 Gbit/s provided that up to 5 Gbit/s is passed through, but if this figure is exceeded, the subscription fee will be 65 thousand rubles. (more than twice as high as before), and the cost of passing 1 Mbit/s with full use of the bandwidth is 6.5 rubles. (previously 3 rubles) for 1 Mbit/s, and for excess – 9 rubles. (previously 6 rubles) for 1 Mbit/s. The most expensive tariff, including a subscription fee for a port capacity of 100 Gbit/s, is 500 thousand rubles. (an increase of 67%) at a cost of 1 Mbit/s with full use of the bandwidth of 5 rubles. (previously 3 rubles).

General Director of Piter-IX Nikolai Metlyuk explained to Kommersant that the price increase is justified by the rise in exchange rates (foreign channels are paid in euros), the need to increase employee salaries, an increase in leasing and loan rates, and the rise in cost of placing equipment in the data center. “An additional constant expense has appeared in the form of the need to install technical means of countering threats (TSPU, see Kommersant on July 25),” added Mr. Metlyuk. He clarified that although the authorities provide the equipment free of charge, it requires additional racks, power and maintenance.

Crimea-IX, as a regional traffic exchange point, does not plan to increase tariffs for the 2024 financial year, the company assured Kommersant: “We assess the financial burden arising from the new requirements for the installation of TSPU as average, however, due to the peculiarities of the functioning and development of Crimea-IX IX we look at the near-term financial prospects quite positively.” DataIX CEO Roman Venediktov also assessed the additional costs as “non-critical” and said that his company is not yet going to raise prices. MSK-IX, Eurasia Peering (owned by IXcellerate), W-IX, Cloud-IX did not answer “Kommersant”.

Obviously, since 2021, the value of currencies has increased, the conditions of maintenance, depreciation and replacement of equipment have changed, so the price increase looks justified, believes Sergei Polovnikov, head of the Content Review agency. In his opinion, the increase in prices for traffic transmission will not seriously affect large providers and telecom operators, but small market participants “will have to adapt, also raise prices, cut costs.”

The company’s clients can contact the Federal Antimonopoly Service, since the increase in services will almost double, notes Mr. Polovnikov, but the operator will be able to justify the increase: “Now this is the scourge of almost all telecommunications services, both consumer and those that providers and operators provide to each other ” According to the expert, in 2024 prices will be increased by all market participants.

Yulia Tishina, Yuri Litvinenko