Cancellation of roaming in Russia. Cancellation of national roaming in Russia

As you know, internal roaming operates on the territory of Russia. When leaving the neighboring region, the subscriber has to pay for his calls at a more expensive tariff. Is there a solution to this problem? The cancellation of roaming in Russia has long been discussed everywhere, but will it happen in the near future?

In the near future, Russians should expect a new mobile tariff, in which the cost of calls will drop to the level of home, regardless of the coverage area of the network. Under the new rules, when receiving calls from other cities and regions, the fee will not be charged. Rules of the tariff throughout the country will remain unchanged.

What do specialists report?

Finam Management, in the person of analyst Maxim Klyagin, reports that the implementation of this innovation should occur in the near future, since the abolition of national roaming in Russia is practically solved and has no special difficulties.

It is worth noting some points that will significantly hamper the implementation of the project. The territory of the Russian Federation has a significant length and uneven geographic relief, and this greatly complicates the work on the organization of infrastructure, as well as increases the cost of its maintenance. Of course, it is worth noting the difficulty of formalizing the initiative through legislative norms. The main part of the financial costs will be borne by the consumer. As experts say, when changing legislation, it would be possible to significantly reduce the cost of tariffs for the population for paying for intranetwork roaming.

Previous attempts

In 2010, there was a deputy initiative to legislatively abolish national roaming. But, unfortunately, in the State Duma, it was considered premature to abolish the existing norms, arguing that the operators bear additional costs in servicing calls at the interregional level. For this reason, the law on the cancellation of roaming in Russia has not been issued.

What is roaming and its alternative?

National roaming is the actual use of the network of another mobile operator for the needs of the first. Due to the fact that its use is extremely disadvantageous for consumers, mobile communication is actively replaced by IP-telephony services.

Intranet roaming - in which one operator distributes telephony services through its own network between different regions of the country.

Volp (voiceover IP) - technology of the IP protocol for telephony and communication. The technology can be used for audio transmission, video downloads, sound files and alerting programs. Also it can be used for live broadcast of webinars, films, TV shows. Since the cancellation of roaming in Russia has not been implemented to date, the use of these alternatives is becoming more popular with each month.

How does this happen?

According to experts, the increased popularity of this topic indicates a direct increase in competition in the mobile communications market. First of all, VoIP technology will significantly reduce the cost of calls. Recently, all mobile operators are going to reduce the cost of calls in roaming, forming special tariff packages.

Payment by the tariff is charged per minute. If the connection is made for up to three seconds inclusive, payment is not charged. When connecting subscribers from different regions, cellular operators use zone and long-distance networks. In the situation that has developed at this stage, when the subscriber is connected to the national roaming, the system activates the service "intranet connection roaming".

When the subscriber will travel to another region, making intraregional calls there, he will make payments through his home network.

About national roaming

Since operators' networks can not physically cover the entire country, they have a need to enter into a roaming agreement with operators from other regions of Russia and use their coverage to make the connection. By definition, the guest network is the one in which the subscriber is registered, in which he himself becomes a roumer.

If there is an abolition of intranet roaming in Russia, this will inevitably lead to irreversible consequences in the form of loss of revenue for mobile operators, which will eventually affect the final consumer, as they will cover a significant share in the loss of income. This is the opinion of interviewed analysts from RIA Novosti. Thus, it is necessary to expect a significant increase in the cost of calls.

Cancellation of roaming in Russia is a matter of soonest time?

The head of the Antimonopoly Federal Service (FAS), Igor Artemyev, earlier said that it is necessary to cancel domestic roaming, especially in the Crimea. The summit of the ministry urged the Ministry of Communications to finish the work in this direction.

However, the risk of increasing tariffs remains a serious problem. According to analysts, roaming gives 3-5% of revenues to mobile providers.

According to the head of the department of wireless technologies Vitaly Solonin, after the abolition of national roaming, with the existing regulation of long-distance traffic, the profitability of telecoms operators will be about 3-5% of their individual revenues from mobile communications.

Is there a serious increase in tariffs?

According to him, if you do not approve the reform of the legislation, there is a risk of increasing tariffs for mobile communications. How should roaming cancellation be regulated in Russia? In the conditions of growth of incomes of operators it is more reasonable to first reorganize the branch legislation in the sphere of traffic transmission, and only after that to cancel roaming inside the country. Otherwise, this will affect the tariffs for end users, which means that operators will have to compensate their losses.

Konstantin Ankilov, a representative of TMT Consulting, also agreed with the above position. According to him, revenues from roaming are about 5% in the revenue of mobile operators. This is a very significant part of it, especially among such common providers as MTS and MegaFon. The cancellation of roaming in Russia in such conditions, when the market is almost not expanding, will lead to a serious rise in the cost of communications. Operators will cover lost revenues by raising tariffs, leaving about the same level of profitability.

Ankilov also expressed his attitude towards the roaming tariffs in the Crimea in the media, noting the fact of an increase in inter-operator tariffs for some companies.

Opposite opinion

At the same time, the general director of the analytical news agency TelecomDaily Denis Kuskov believes that national roaming does not bring supernatural revenue, and its cancellation should not affect the growth of tariffs. According to him, operators have licenses at the federal level and are obliged to ensure the same work throughout the state. Minkomsvyaz takes the wrong position - do not pay attention to what is happening and agree with the operators' actions. Given that the EU managed to cancel the full roaming, it means that it is possible to perform in Russia, Kuskov believes.

Cancellation of roaming in Russia: MTS and other operators

Cellular operators report that they are now working to reduce roaming tariffs.

The head of the press service of the provider "MegaFon" Dorokhina Julia recalled that at present, the operators are carrying traffic through long-distance communication networks, which influenced the basic rates of domestic roaming. In the future, these costs will be reduced through the introduction of new technologies, as well as traffic through the data network (for example, VoLTE), but it is not impossible to use them due to the lack of a legal basis.

She also explained that already today Megafon subscribers who regularly travel around Russia have the opportunity to connect an option called "Be at Home", the price of which is 15 rubles per day. This makes it possible to communicate on trips at the rates of the home region.

What kind of news comes from MTS Russia? A roaming cancellation is also planned for this operator. MTS canceled it in 2015 on tariffs of the Smart series: the subscriber, being on a trip in another region, is served on the terms of the home tariff. This was officially announced by Dmitry Solodovnikov - MTS press secretary.

"Beeline" conducts a phased policy of lowering prices in roaming for its customers. When using package tariffs "ALL" subscribers are unlimited calls from the provider "Beeline" almost throughout Russia. In this case, the user receives a set of available minutes, SMS and mobile Internet at a cost commensurate with the prices of the home region. Moreover, when traveling through the territory of many regions of Russia, communication is provided at the same prices as at home. This was officially announced by spokeswoman of the company-provider Anna Aybasheva.

Thus, active measures are already being taken to abolish national roaming. Will it be profitable and convenient for consumers - this can be seen in the near future.