Five industry associations held a press conference to harshly criticize the Ministry of Digital Development’s ongoing telecom market licensing reforms. The move is important because tightening capital requirements and network coverage could destroy thousands of local providers, leaving more than 50 million citizens in 27 federal subjects without access to high-quality Internet access.
The department’s project involves dividing licenses into three categories. A basic license worth 1 million rubles will prohibit the provision of broadband access services. If you have 100 million of your own funds and cover at least 30% of the region’s cities, a universal license for broadband access will cost 10 million rubles. A general license for large enterprises requires 50 million rubles and 1 billion in own funds. Experts point out that, excluding the cost of expanding infrastructure, the total financial burden on operators will reach 110 million rubles, and individual entrepreneurs will completely lose the right to obtain a license.
In addition to financial hurdles, market participants are concerned about licenses being stripped without trial for repeated violations and the subsequent free transfer of networks to large businesses. Representatives of the associations Rosteleset, OAOS and AMOR stressed that small towns, new regions and megacities will be the most affected by innovations. IT developers and data centers losing thousands of local customers will also be attacked. In response to the criticism, the Ministry of Digital Development said that no final decision had been made and that the changes were aimed at allowing only reliable companies to enter the network modernization market.
