Internet access Market of Russia and CIS

Accessible Internet (free access to socially significant sites)

Main article: Accessible Internet (free access to socially significant sites)

Internet access (Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development program)

Main article: Internet access (Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development program)

Business development at ISPs

2024: Russia adopted a law on the free access of Internet providers to apartment buildings

On March 27, 2024, the State Duma of the Russian Federation in the third (final) reading adopted a law on the free access of Internet providers to apartment buildings (MKD). According to the initiative, the fee for the placement of communication networks at the objects of common property of the owners of the premises will not be charged.

Our bill solves two problems. The first is freedom and the right of a citizen to choose an operator for himself, the second is to restore order in houses. For the first time, we establish uniform requirements for the placement of communication networks in the MKD, - wrote the head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Alexander Khinshtein in his Telegram channel.

The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a law on the free access of Internet providers to apartment buildings

The bill establishes that communication networks are located on objects of common property of owners of an apartment building on the basis of an agreement with any owner or tenant of housing under a social employment agreement without the need for a decision by the general meeting. According to the current standards, in order to place communication equipment on common house property, a decision of at least two-thirds of the owners of the premises of apartment buildings, adopted at their general meeting, is necessary.

According to Hinstein, telecommunications operators who continue to work will be obliged to reinstall all their equipment within a year according to uniform standards. Internet providers with whom contracts are not renegotiated will have to dismantle this equipment.

In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers will determine standard technical requirements for the installation of communication networks in an apartment building, in accordance with these requirements, the possibility of placing wires in houses chaotically will be excluded.

We will be able to achieve the goal set by the President - to provide 98% of all households with access to ultra-fast Internet by 2030. Well, the residents of the MKD will finally get rid of "telecom slavery" and "mess" in the entrances, - said Alexander Khinshtein.[1]

2023

Mishustin called the average speed of fixed Internet in Russia

The average speed of fixed broadband access in Russia is 78 Mbps, which is the 55th indicator in the world. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced this on November 7, 2023 during a strategic session on the development of the communications industry.

Over the past 5 years, according to the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, the volume of global cross-border Internet traffic has been growing by an average of a third per year, and in Russia the figure has increased by more than 11 times over 10 years.

Today, digital technologies are being actively introduced in the world. People are increasingly using electronic services, devices. High-resolution content is also gaining popularity. And of course, all this leads to a global increase in data transmission, - said Mishustin.

He stressed that one of the tasks in Russia for the future is the development of infrastructure, so that by 2030 there is an opportunity to connect households to the Internet at a speed of at least 1 Gbps. The head of the Cabinet pointed out the need to modernize the existing telecommunications infrastructure and ensure the construction of new equipment using domestic equipment. The provision of Russians largely depends on this, he said.

According to Mishustin, the backbone fiber-optic networks are the basis of the functioning of the entire telecommunications industry. They are used to provide fixed broadband services and create channels in the mobile and satellite segments. The total length of such lines in Russia exceeds 1 million km, including cross-border traffic, the head of government said on November 7, 2023.

It is important throughout the country to ensure the provision of high-quality and competitive communication services, including high-speed Internet access. It is necessary to build a modern secure telecommunications infrastructure using domestic solutions and provide for the strengthening of both scientific and personnel potential, he said.[2]

In which cities of Russia the fastest wired Internet. Moscow is not in the top three

In October 2023, Дом.ру analysts published a study in which they listed the cities leading in the speed of wired Internet. In the first place is Krasnodar, and Moscow did not get into the top 3.

According to RIA Novosti with reference to this report, "Дом.ру," the average Internet speed in Krasnodar is 240.5 Mbps. The leadership of this city is associated with a surge in demand for a remote work format, which in 2023 increased by 160% and, according to analysts, will continue to grow, the study notes.

Following Krasnodar is Rostov-on-Don, where it reaches 179 Mbps. Petersburg was slightly behind the southern city, where the average speed of 177.8 Mbps was recorded. Moscow was only in fifth place (168.5 Mbps).

As the head of the Internet product of the Дом.ру company Ekaterina Krivosheeva noted, in 2023 there is an increase in the average speed of Internet connection in all cities included in the rating. The difference with speed in 2022 averaged 21 Mbps. This confirms the demand of users for high stable Internet and the necessary constant work of Internet providers to improve services in order to meet requests, she said.

As noted by Kommersant in MegaFon, providers give priority to modernization to large cities, where there is more customer demand for high speeds and higher competition. According to a company representative, the active modernization and emergence of gigabit tariffs provoked growing content consumption and tougher competition in the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. According to experts interviewed by the newspaper, the regions often have fewer backbone networks and fewer operators, that is, weaker competition, hence the lower speeds of fixed Internet in small settlements.^[3]

The 5 largest operators of fixed home Internet access in Russia control 71% of the market

The largest operators of fixed home Internet access in Russia in the second quarter of 2023 were Rostelecom, MTS, ER-Telecom, VimpelCom and TransTeleCom. These companies accounted for 71% of the subscriber base in the market. This is evidenced by the data of the analytical company TMT Consulting, published in early October 2023.

According to the study, the subscriber base of the market leader - Rostelecom - in April-June 2023 increased by 70 thousand users compared to the same period in 2022. The operator continues to actively develop its digital infrastructure. The number of subscribers connected by optical technologies increased in the second quarter of 2023 by 141 thousand or 1.4%. The growth compared to the second quarter of 2022 was 6% (more than 600 thousand subscribers).

MTS also demonstrated the growth of the subscriber base, the number of its users increased by 103 thousand (by 2.3%). The main growth of the company is provided by the regions where the operator continues to expand its networks. Convergent offers remain the main driver.

The subscriber base of ER-Telecom, according to TMT Consulting estimates, in April-June 2023 remained at the level of the previous quarter. VimpelCom demonstrated a 0.2% decrease in the subscriber base of fixed broadband access compared to the same time segments. The fifth place in the fixed broadband access market is occupied by TransTeleCom, which accounts for 2% of the market by subscribers and income.

In the Moscow market of fixed home Internet access, the penetration of the service is 90%, the total subscriber base is 4.4 million users, the money volume of the market is 4.3 billion rubles. The largest providers are MTS (MGTS), Rostelecom, VimpelCom, ER-Telecom (including Akado and Telecom Center).

Results of Q2 2023 in the broadband access market in the B2C segment

Growth of broadband access market in the second quarter to 40.1 billion rubles

In the second quarter of 2023, the volume of the broadband Internet access (broadband access broadband) market in Russia reached 40.1 billion rubles. This was announced on October 2, 2023 by the press service of the State Duma deputy RFAnton Nemkin.

The number of broadband Internet subscribers in the private segment increased to 35.5 million people.

Total subscriber base providers fixed home Internet access in the second quarter of 2023 increased by 0.5% compared to the previous period. The market volume in monetary terms increased by 0.1%. ARPU amounted to 377 rubles, which is four rubles higher than a year earlier, the company said in a report.

The main growth of MTS is provided by the regions where the operator continues to expand its networks. Convergent proposals remain the main driver, - noted TMT Consulting.

Russia in this direction shows certain successes. Let me remind you that the country ranks sixth in the world in terms of Internet availability, while the average check for paying for high-speed Internet is much lower than world values. As of October 2023, Internet penetration in Russia is 88.2%.

Special attention should be directed to small territories, the deputy believes.

Both large and small cities are provided with the Internet. We must concentrate on rural areas with small populations. They take on 12% who do not get us until they reach 100% Internet penetration. The state at both the federal and regional levels includes this issue on the agenda. Let me remind you that we have a program "Elimination of digital inequality," implemented by the Ministry of Digital Development of Russia. Within the framework of it, rural territories get the opportunity through voting to determine the villages in which the Internet will be held, - explained Anton Nemkin.

I would like to cite as an example the Perm Territory, in which, along with federal programs, the regional program "Development of the Information Society" is operating - a project of the Government of the Territory, which is designed to provide access to communication and the Internet, primarily to sparsely populated rural areas. Of course, it is not always profitable from the point of view of the economy to conduct broadband Internet in the village. Other technologies can come to the rescue here - for example, satellite communications. Let me remind you that the development of both the Internet and communications is the priority of the state. Therefore, with active communication between society, the state and business, the problem can be closed as soon as possible, the parliamentarian concluded.

Named the largest broadband access operators in Russia

On July 17, 2023, the analytical company TMT Consulting published the results of a study of the Russian broadband Internet access market in the private segment. According to the report, the leading four - Rostelecom, MTS, ER-Telecom and VimpelCom - account for 69% of the subscriber base in the country.

According to TMT Consulting, ER-Telecom, which consolidated the previously purchased Moscow operator Akado in the first quarter of 2023, increased its market share in subscribers by 1 percentage point. up to 12%. The number of private users of the company's broadband access system increased by 6.2%.

The number of Rostelecom subscribers in January-March 2023 increased by 70 thousand, or 0.6%. MTS also demonstrated the growth of the subscriber base, the number of its users increased by 56 thousand (by 1.3%). The drivers of the company's growth remain the construction and development of networks, as well as proposals based on converged solutions, the researchers note.

In the Moscow market, penetration is 90%, the total subscriber base is 4.4 million users, the money volume of the market is 4.3 billion rubles. After the integration of Akado, ER-Telecom became a prominent player in the Moscow broadband access market with a 6% share in both subscribers and revenue. Previously, the operator provided services in the capital's B2C market on the basis of the Kronics Plus operator acquired in 2019 (RiNet).

By the end of March 2023, the number of broadband Internet subscribers in the segment of individuals in Russia amounted to 35.1 million, which almost exactly corresponds to the indicator of the three previous months. The market volume in monetary terms during this time increased by 0.9% and reached 40.3 billion rubles due to an increase in the cost of the service by a number of operators. As a result, the average revenue per subscriber (ARPU) reached 383 rubles.

TMT B2C broadband access RATING - Q1 2023 results

2022: The market for legal entities decreased by 6.2% to 61.2 billion rubles. Leaders

In 2022, sales of broadband Internet access services in the segment of legal entities in Russia reached 61.2 billion rubles, which is 6.2% less than a year earlier. The number of subscribers decreased by 1.6%, to 1.86 million. This is evidenced by the data of the analytical company TMT Consulting. The study was published in May 2023.

Experts attributed the fall of the Russian broadband access market in the B2B segment to the following factors:

• the departure of foreign producers;
• reduction of branch networks by large business as part of optimization of operating expenses;
• moving part of IT companies abroad.

The main contribution to the decrease in the revenue of telecom operators in 2022 was made by the completion of the third stage of the main project for connecting socially significant objects (SZO) - in 2019-2021, a significant part of the income in this project was formed by integration payments. Also, the revenue was negatively affected by the reduction in the client base.

Rostelecom remained the market leader in terms of the number of customers and income in 2022 with a share of 45% in monetary terms. The company was still the largest player in all major segments - SMB, large business and the public sector. The remaining leading operators strengthened their position in the market, which was facilitated by the peculiarities of their accounting policy: a significant part of the SZO points were connected by these operators as part of the provision of a related VPN service, which reduced the negative effect of the completion of the SZO connection phase.

According to the results of 2022, MTS and Er-Telecom were also among the three largest broadband access operators in terms of the number of subscribers among legal entities. In terms of revenue, in addition to Rostelecom, MTS and VimpelCom entered the top 3.

According to forecasts of TMT Consulting, in 2022 the revenue of broadband access Internet Internet operators for legal entities will slightly decrease amid the adverse impact of economic sanctions. In the medium term, the dynamics of the broadband access market in the legal entity segment will be significantly determined by the budgets allocated for projects under the Digital Economy program. Under these conditions, operators will continue to focus on maintaining growth in the segment of legal entities through IT services: solutions in the field of information security, cloud products, data storage, video surveillance and video analytics, IoT, etc., the study says.

Earlier, TMT Consulting analysts calculated that the volume of the entire Russian broadband access Internet market in monetary terms in 2022 decreased by 0.5%, while the subscriber base increased by 0.3%. In the B2C segment, small growth was preserved due to the introduction of new housing and the coverage of the private sector in the suburbs of large cities.

In 2022, the mobile market, which forms 59% of the industry's revenue, has traditionally become a key driver of telecom market growth. At the same time, dynamics continued to decline in the segments of fixed broadband Internet access (broadband access) and pay-TV. The growth rate of the subscriber base of both markets was insignificant, and the increase in tariffs was significantly offset by the further spread of package offers.

Mobile revenues in 2022 increased by 3.5% against 5% in the previous year. The main factor in the growth was the increase in tariffs and the growth in consumption of additional services, which ensured an increase in revenue in both the V2S and B2B segments, the report said.

At the end of the year, the number of subscribers (active SIM-cards) of mobile communications in Russia decreased by 0.9% - to 256 million, approaching the level of 2019 (260 million). In absolute terms, the subscriber base decreased by 2 million.

TMT RATING broadband access market B2B - 2022

2021

Internet tariffs for schools and hospitals in Russia increase several times

In 35 regions of Russia, telecom operators, taking advantage of the monopoly position, announced an increase in Internet tariffs for socially significant facilities (North-West Administrative District, schools, hospitals, district police stations, private security departments, authorities, cultural facilities, etc.) since the New Year. Alexander Khinshtein, head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications, wrote about this on his Telegram channel in mid-December 2021.

According to him, in the Novgorod region, the current prices will triple, and in the Moscow region, North Ossetia and Karachay-Cherkessia - four times.

The State Duma IT Committee considers this approach completely unacceptable. Back in the fall [2021], I proposed to establish uniform federal Internet tariffs for all schools, but now I see that we should go further, "Hinstein said.

In this regard, it is proposed to amend the Federal Law "On Communications." In particular, we are talking about limiting the growth of tariffs when renegotiating contracts, an increase will be possible only at the level of the consumer price index, if the composition of services does not change. In addition, it is proposed to prohibit operators from unilaterally disconnecting communication and degrading its quality after the completion of the contract, except when the initiative came from the users themselves. Khinshtein stressed that the proposals were supported and worked out by the Ministry of Digital Development. According to preliminary estimates, such a decision will save about 3 billion rubles for the budget, since we are talking about 103 thousand objects.

The Ministry of Digital Development supports Hinstein's proposals. The ministry said that the allocated state funding allowed telecom operators to build the necessary infrastructure and provide the Internet with SZO throughout Russia, but with the extension of contracts in 2021, 8 operators increased the cost of their services by 3-5 times. Amendments to the law "On Communications" will exclude arbitrary changes in tariffs, the ministry believes.^[4]

Threat of Internet shutdown for operators using frequencies in the 3.4-3.6 GHz band

In early March 2021, it became known about the upcoming shutdown Internet of some Russian users. The fact is that on March 10, the permission of the State Commission on Radio Frequencies () SCRF to use frequencies in the 3.4-3.6 GHz range by operators expires.

According to RBC, the operators discussed the extension of this period with representatives of the commission back in 2020, the representatives of MegaFon and Rostelecom most actively asked for this.

This issue was supposed to be the most heated at the first meeting of the CRRC this year. But since it has not yet taken place, those who now use 3.4-3.6 GHz frequencies will have to turn off the transmitters on March 11, "a source close to the SCRF told the publication.

Another interlocutor of the publication, familiar with the activities of the State Committee for Radio Broadcasting, noted that, when deciding to extend the permit, members of the commission from law enforcement agencies will have to take into account their position regarding the use of the 3.4-3.8 GHz frequency range for the development of 5G networks. According to RBC, the operators over the past few years have asked the authorities to allocate these frequencies for 5G, but the security forces and Roscosmos opposed, which use them for their own purposes and believe that mobile communications will interfere with their systems. As a result, Megafon and VimpelCom were not even allowed to test the fifth generation network at their 3.4-3.8 GHz frequencies.

Director of the Department of State Policy in the Field of Communications of the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation Andrei Katsurov assured that the Russians will not be left without home Internet. According to him, operators can use other frequency bands allocated to them and continue to provide Internet access services. Operators will have to replace subscriber equipment in a timely manner in order to eliminate communication interruptions, Katsurov said.^[5]

2020

In Russia, the leading regions for the penetration of broadband access have been identified

In early October 2021, the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) published the results of a study on the availability of the Internet in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

The five leading regions in terms of broadband penetration at the end of 2020 are as follows:

• Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug - 91.9% of the population has such access to the Internet;
• Republic of Tuva - 91.8%;
• Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug - 90.9%;
• Tula region - 89.1%;
• Moscow - 87.5%.

The average growth rate of the share of households with broadband Internet since 2013 was 4.6%. At the same time, a significant negative correlation coefficient was noted between the level of broadband Internet penetration in 2019 and the increase in broadband Internet users in 2020. Thus, regions with low values ​ ​ grew faster than the leading regions, i.e. there was convergence, or a reduction in the digital gap in 2020.

The second type of inequality - the use of digital technologies by the population - can be estimated through the proportion of the population using the Internet to order goods and services. In 2020, according to UIISS, it amounted to 40.3%, which is almost 5% more than in 2019.

According to the RANEPA, in Russia in 2020, the share of the population using the Internet for ordering goods and services increased from 35.7 to 40.3%. And previously lagging regions like Kalmykia, North Ossetia, Adygea and Dagestan grew the fastest, which also leads to a reduction in digital inequality.

At the same time, data on the spread of online commerce can be used to indirectly assess digital inequality in terms of profit for entrepreneurs. In Moscow, the share of online trade is 9.3%, and in Russia as a whole, this indicator is rapidly growing (from 2 to 3.9%) - the largest over the entire period of observations.^[6]

Growth of the broadband access market for legal entities by 3.7%, to 57.6 billion rubles - TMT Consulting

The volume of the Russian market for broadband access (broadband access) to the Internet provided to legal entities at the end of 2020 amounted to 57.6 billion rubles, an increase of 3.7% compared to the previous year. However, the number of subscribers (ports) decreased by 0.4%, to 1.83 million, according to data from the TMT Consulting analytical company.

Experts associated the decrease in the subscriber base with the negative impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on medium and small businesses (SMB). Some companies, primarily from the service sector, could not cope with the negative economic effects of the periods of "self-isolation" in the Russian Federation and subsequent crisis trends, which led to their closure, the study notes.

According to experts, the increase in connected ports within the second stage of connections of socially significant objects did not compensate for the outflow of SMB clients, since a significant part was put into operation within the framework of the related VPN service market.

In the SMB segment, in addition to the outflow of the subscriber base, revenues also showed a noticeable decrease: client companies "frozen" the broadband access service, switched to minimum tariff plans, or completely refused the service for periods of self-isolation. Despite negative factors, at the end of 2020, the market showed positive revenue dynamics with an indicator of 3.7%.

The leader in the number of connected active ports and in terms of revenue remains "Rostelecom." The company increased its share in the market structure by revenue to 43% due to the active promotion of high-speed tariff plans among the subscriber base, as well as the implementation of federal projects and large government programs.

The second place was taken by MTS with a 10 percent share, followed by VimpelCom (8%). Similar balance of power in the market and in terms of the number of subscribers.^[7]

Broadband access market growth by 3.1%, to 147.7 billion rubles - TMT Consulting

The Russian broadband (broadband access) Internet access market remained growing in 2020, but the dynamics weakened. This is evidenced by the data of the analytical company TMT Consulting.

They calculated that sales of broadband access services to the population at the end of 2020 reached 147.7 billion rubles against 143.7 billion rubles a year earlier. Thus, revenue rose by 3.1%, but in 2019 the growth rate was measured by 5%.

Among the negative factors, due to which the Russian broadband access market in the segment of individuals began to grow more slowly, experts attributed operator shares and special offers that operated during the period of self-isolation. On the other hand, the presence of fixed broadband access in 2020 became a necessity in connection with the transition of part of the population to remote work and study. However, this trend did not help the market to increase or at least maintain the growth rate of 2019 in monetary terms.

According to 147.7 billion rubles against 143.7 billion rubles, the transition of subscribers to higher-speed tariff plans and the adjustment by operators of the cost of individual offers led to a slight increase in ARPU (average revenue per subscriber) in the B2C segment. In 2020, ARPU increased by 3 rubles - to 360 rubles from 357 rubles in 2019. Analysts believe that in the coming years there will be a slight increase in ARPU, however, one cannot expect noticeable growth in the context of high competition and the promotion of package and convergent tariffs.

By the end of 2020, researchers estimated the degree of penetration of broadband Internet access in the segment of individuals in Russia at 61%.

MTS remained the leader in terms of subscriber base growth in 2020. The number of subscribers at the company increased by 358 thousand (by 10.3%) due to the regions and business of MGTS in Moscow and the Moscow region. In 2020, MGTS significantly strengthened its position in the market of the Moscow region, due to the expansion of the network in the region. Convergent offers of the company remain the main driver of subscriber base growth. At the same time, MTS offers service packages, which, in addition to standard telephony, Internet, cable or IPTV, also include the service [[Satellite (paid) TV (Russian market)|satellite TV, analysts say.

At the end of 2020, the largest Russian operator broadband access "" Rostelecom increased its subscriber base by 265 thousand subscribers (or 2.2%), thus, the company was in second place in terms of absolute subscriber growth. In 2020, Rostelecom continued to develop in the B2C segment in the direction of promoting packages, additional services and converged offers. Due to the economic situation in 2020, the overall market activity has decreased - M&A nevertheless, Rostelecom acquired a number of regional operators, the largest of which are: M2C (Murmansk region), ATK (Arkhangelsk region), Planet (Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk region).

In 2020, the number of broadband access users VimpelCom"" increased by 8.2% (by 214 thousand subscribers). The operator continued to develop towards mobile and fixed-line convergence. The share of customers FMC in the total subscriber base of broadband access for the year amounted to 54% (more than 1.5 million subscribers).

ER-Telecom is named in TMT Consulting as the second large Russian broadband access operator. By the end of 2020, the size of the company's subscriber base practically did not change compared to 2019. In 2020, the company made a number of purchases of local operators: New Telesystems (Tomsk), Dianet (Altai Territory), Convex (Yekaterinburg), Ekran TV (Chelyabinsk). The operator is also implementing a federal project to modernize the broadband access optical network, which will last until 2026.^[8]

IAA TelecomDaily: three Moscow broadband access provider at once provided an average speed of over 100 Mbps

TelecomDaily On November 3, 2020, IAA reported the results of annual open measurements of the speed Internet of connection at the broadband access providers Moscow via the Megabitus application. As a year earlier, the first is: MGTS the average speed is 111 Mbps per load and 122 Mbps in the reverse channel (for comparison, in 2019 76.5 and 68 Mbps, respectively, which also provided the company with primacy). In second place is the Internet provider "" 2KOM belonging to "," Almatel- 102 Mbps to the subscriber and 109 Mbps from the subscriber, and "" Rostelecom(77 Mbps) remained in the top three. Moreover, a number of broadband access players, including MGTS, have increased speeds by about 50%.

The study methodology has been changed compared to 2019, it was attended not only by market leaders in terms of the number of subscribers, but also by most local networks.

Agency representatives emphasize that this is the first public study in wired access networks: thousands of users shared their data in the application, as a result of which the speeds of dozens of providers in the Moscow region were measured.

During the month of October, a total of several thousand measurements were taken, which made it possible to form a rating of the fastest operators in Moscow.

The Megabitus application runs on the basis of domestic software and allows you to measure the speed and other characteristics of the Internet access service.

At the same time, unlike foreign software systems, the data of which are published in Russia, the agency leaves all sources open - that is, all information, including IP addresses, is received by operators in order to apply in the process of working on the infrastructure, improve the characteristics of networks, and establish feedback with subscribers.

Last year, the 2Kom network did not get into the study, since it took into account only the largest operators in terms of the number of subscribers. "Rostelecom," on the contrary, a participant in the 2019 rating, actually repeated his result - among providers he again took second place, skipping forward only MGTS, and in the current general top he turned out to be the third: 77 Mbps to the subscriber and 88 Mbps - in the reverse channel (in 2019 - 67 Mbps and 59 Mbps, respectively; the operator added 10 Mbps and accelerated unloading to the network by 50%).

The fourth among the fastest is Inetkom, another relatively small provider, which is represented in more than 10 districts of the capital. The average download speed is 74 Mbps, for unloading - 100 Mbps. The fifth in the new rating was Akado, which, as in 2019, has a speed per subscriber (73 Mbps) higher than from the subscriber (66 Mbps). And according to the first indicator, this operator is again the third among the "big" ones - in 2019 Akado provided 58 and 27 Mbps, respectively; that is, the network not only improved speeds, but also reduced the lag in the reverse channel.

Two more participants in the 2019 rating, Beeline and NetByNet, which are still in the Moscow Top 5 in terms of subscriber base, are ranked with different results in the speed rating.

So, NetByNet keeps close to the group of leaders, it has 8th place, 65.5 Mbps for loading and 65 Mbps for unloading (57 and 67 Mbps, respectively, in 2019). Beeline (network VimpelCom"") has 16th place - 48 and 64 Mbps against 57 and 50 Mbps a year earlier.

Evaluation takes place according to the parameters described in paragraphs 4.2.5 and 4.2.6 of GOST R 55387-2012 and limited by the following list:

• Number of successful logins (successful connection attempts);
• Login time (for 80% and 95% attempts);
• Achieved data transfer rate (maximum, minimum, arithmetic mean, mean quadratic deviation);
• Failure rate;
• Delay (one-way transmission time).

The principles of the Assessment do not contradict GOST R 55387-2012 and related documents.

The score is divided into equivalent iterations. Each iteration begins with the establishment of a connection. If the connection cannot be established, the following iteration is started. The number of iterations within one launch by the user is limited to 5 (five).

If the connection is successfully established, the Application proceeds to assess the quality of the connection.

Before the Evaluation begins, the system attempts to block all software except the Application from accessing the network.

Based on the results of the assessment, a report is generated and sent to the second component of the system - the server for data collection (hereinafter, the Server). The report can also be seen by the user.

The report is accompanied by the most complete, if possible, information about the device on which the launch was performed, the OS state at the time of launch and the device state. To do this, the report is supplemented with at least the following information (hereinafter, Identification Parameters):

• MAC address;
• information about RAM, processor, ROM, network card, discrete graphics processor;
• list of detected software from the specified list. Categories of the software you are looking for: browsers, network clients, office applications, applications for remote access and management, applications for communication (instant messengers, VOIP clients);
• List of peripherals
• loading the processor, RAM, ROM, network card.

The application marks the user's device with a unique key that also complements the report.

Ministry of Digital Development decided to introduce a mechanism for compensation by Internet providers of expenses of management companies

At the end of September 2020, it became known about the decision of the Ministry of Digital Development to launch a compensation mechanism from telecom operators to management companies (UK) of residential buildings when placing telecommunication networks there.

It is offered to operators to develop a technique of compensations for expenses of UK. We are talking about a one-time payment for "technical supervision," as well as monthly payments, if the operator assigns part of the duties to the Criminal Code, according to the minutes of the meeting of the Ministry of Digital Development with providers, which is referred to by the Kommersant newspaper.

According to the calculations of the operators themselves, they pay hundreds of millions of rubles to management companies annually, but this issue has not yet been resolved at the legislative level. At the same time, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) estimated the total costs of telecom operators at 2.7 billion rubles annually.

As the Ministry of Digital Development told the newspaper, it is proposed to clarify the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, as well as limit the fee to the actual costs of the management company. The amount of expenses in turn must be documented. The department noted that this position can be "corrected based on the results of the discussion with both telecom operators and the management company."

The presence of an unlimited number of operators can lead to violation of building codes during installation, illegal distribution of advertising, errors in connecting to electricity, loss of server keys, which later causes the locks to be torn down, says Alexander Vostrikov, Deputy General Director for Technological Development and Commerce of Peak Comfort Management Company.

At the same time, it is always difficult to determine the person responsible for these violations, "he said, adding that the presence of no more than three Internet providers is optimal at home[9]

The Ministry of Communications creates a service for measuring the speed of the Internet

In August 2020, it became known about the decision of the Ministry of Communications to start creating a service for measuring the speed of Internet access. The deputy head of the ministry, Oleg Ivanov, said that the popular American service Speedtest may show incorrect data, since providers download test files used by Speedtest, and the subscriber measures the channel speed not to the global network, but to his own telecom operator. Read more here.

The share of socially significant objects connected to the Internet in the Russian Federation over the year increased from 36% to 44%

The share of socially significant infrastructure facilities with the ability to connect to broadband Internet access in 2019 amounted to 44.3% against 36.1% a year earlier. This is evidenced by the statistics published by Rosstat on the national project "Digital Economy."

Providing the Internet with socially significant facilities is provided for by the national program "Digital Economy," until 2021 72 billion rubles are allocated for these purposes. Such facilities, in particular, include schools, government agencies, territorial election commissions, feldsher-midwife stations, fire stations, police, Rosgvardia facilities. In total, it is necessary to connect about 100 thousand socially significant objects.

According to the requirements of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, it is necessary to connect about 100 thousand objects to contractors (among them Rostelecom, MTS and MegaFon), of which 26 thousand in 2019, 32 thousand in 2020 and 42 thousand in 2021. At the end of 2019, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications reported on the connection of almost 18 thousand socially significant objects.

By the end of 2019, 17.7 thousand objects were connected. At the same time, in 18 regions, representatives of socially significant objects refuse to sign data transfer services due to the fact that they did not have Internet access equipment installed and, accordingly, they did not consume the service.

A representative of Rostelecom, in a conversation with RBC, said that the company 100% fulfilled the state contracts of 2019 and connected more than 7 thousand socially significant objects to the Internet.

MTS fully fulfills all competitive and contractual conditions when connecting socially significant objects to a fixed Internet, - assured the representative of the operator.

According to the representative of MegaFon, the company completed all the necessary work on connecting socially significant objects to the Internet in 2019, which is confirmed by the relevant acts on the work performed and the completed one-time payments.^[10]

Internet providers storm the Moscow region and invest billions

In early February 2020, MTS announced the investment of 2 billion rubles in the development of fixed Internet networks in the Moscow region. Other major providers are also looking to strengthen positions in a region traditionally dominated by small players.

MTS launched a program designed until 2023, involving the active development of high-speed Internet access channels via the GPON fiber-optic network in residential and office premises in 36 cities of the Moscow Region with a population of from 50 thousand people. The focus will be on cities where coverage has been inadequate before.

In 2020, a high-speed data network will be built in nine cities: Podolsk, Sergiev-Posad, Domodedovo, Orekhovo-Zuevo, Serpukhov, Dmitrov, Shchelkovo, Ivanteevka, Solnechnogorsk. In 2021-2022, construction is planned in 20 cities, in 2023 - in seven more cities.

According to MTS forecasts, by 2023 the company will be able to provide Internet access services and digital services based on it in 54 cities or 75% of cities in the Moscow region. More than 1.5 million households and administrative buildings will be connected to the fiber-optic network.

MTS competitors also rely on business development in the Moscow region. This region, according to a representative of Rostelecom, is one of the most promising and rapidly developing.

In the Moscow region, we are planning organic growth and are considering merger and acquisition options, such negotiations are already underway, "he said in a conversation with Kommersant.

ER-Telecom (Дом.ru brand) also sees great opportunities in the Moscow market and the region - in the b2b segment, the company's press service noted.

This is an interesting competitive field. Our strategy involves a combination of organic growth and M&A, a spokesman said[11]

2019:166 thousand pub­lichnykh to­chek Wi-Fi - dos­tu­pa. Revenue ope­rato­rov svya­zi 7 billion rubles (+ 12 %)

Following the results of 2019 in Russia there are 166 thousand public points of Wi - Fi - access. This was so­ob­shcha­et in July ana­liti­ches­kaya kom­pa­niya TMT Kon­salting. to­chek growth in bes­pro­vod­noy lo­kal­noy se­ti for the year sos­ta­vil 23%. The revenue of telecom operators from services of Wi-fi in 2019 reached 7 billion rubles - it is 12% more,^[12] rubles.

According to TMT, in 2019, public Wi-Fi grew noticeably in the banking sector, the passenger transportation segment, as well as in the public sector. The main factors of the market growth were the growth of the number of business customers who consider the Wi-Fi network as a separate channel for promoting goods and services, increasing interest in digital advertising and data services, as well as the introduction of digital technologies in government agencies and the deployment of time points for mass events. Among the main trends that the operators surveyed by TMT noted on the market last year are the appearance of requests from large customers to solve specific business problems.

The largest players on the market in terms of revenue last year were Maxima-Telecom (43%, or about 3 billion rubles), ER-Telecom (16%), Rostelecom (12%), VimpelCom (Beeline brand, 6%). In terms of the number of access points, the first among the players is Rostelecom (27%), the second is Beeline (15%), the third is ER-Telecom (14%).

Maxim has 8% of points in the entire market. "Over the year, the number of points managed by the company has almost doubled (the company does not own all of them, but receives revenue from identification, authorization and monetization services), mainly due to the fact that at the beginning of 2019 Maxima Telecoms became the single operator of the city network, Moscow_WiFi_Free" TMT experts say. According to a representative of the operator's press service, last year Maxima Telecom increased the number of points under control to 32 thousand.

"Rostelecom" at the end of 2019 was the leader in the number of served points of public Wi-Fi access - there were 45.1 thousand of them. The number of operator points over the past year increased by 64%.

In 2019, the number of hot spots organized by ER-Telecom in Russia increased by 13%, exceeding the mark of 23 thousand points. The company's revenue increased by 21%.

The number of served points of public Wi-Fi access at Beeline at the end of the year amounted to 25.5 thousand. The operator's revenue for 2019 increased by 18%.

Operators noted a decrease in the volume of service consumption due to restrictive measures taken in April this year. First of all, the restrictions affected the segment of small and medium-sized businesses - service enterprises, HoReCa, hotel business, as well as public Wi-Fi networks in public places and transport. The TMT study says that the decrease in revenue from Wi-Fi access services during the restriction period was 20-30% compared to the period before the pandemic.

Audience

2023: Government instructs 90% of Russians to connect to gigabit Internet

The Russian government instructed 90% of Russians to connect to gigabit Internet by 2035. This was announced on June 21, 2023 by the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maksut Shadayev at an expanded meeting of the State Duma IT Committee.

According to him, the task of connecting the population to high-speed Internet is laid in the strategy for the development of the communications industry. This is a very ambitious program that requires serious investment from telecommunications operators, the head of Ministry of Digital Development emphasized. He noted that the possibility of free rent prescribed in the bill on non-discriminatory access of operators to apartment buildings will allow operators to redirect part of their resources to the implementation of investment programs (including the organization of high-speed Internet) and reduce tariffs.

The more rent, and rent grows annually, we discussed yesterday, by 15-20% in general, rent grows for placing equipment in apartment buildings. This places a burden on operators and, accordingly, less investment opportunities to introduce the most modern technologies, - added Shadayev.

The "Strategy for the Development of the Communications Industry in the Russian Federation for 2024-2035" is being developed by the Ministry of Digital Development together with market participants. According to the document, the need to develop infrastructure for broadband Internet is explained by the development of new technologies: digital production, smart transport, online games, virtual and augmented reality applications, the distribution of content in ultra-high quality (4K and 8K).

Internet access for households will become a communal service along with electricity and heat supply, the document says.

It also says that by 2035, 50% of users will have access to 10-gigabit channels.^[13]

2022

Chernyshenko: 130 million people use the Internet in Russia

In Russia, there are about 130 million Internet users, which corresponds to 90% of the country's population. This was announced at the end of September 2022 by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.

I am sure that the availability of the Internet is one of the key conditions for economic growth and the well-being of citizens. Russia ranks sixth among the leading countries in this indicator, - said the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia during the opening of the XII Russian Forum on Internet Governance on September 28, 2022.

He also noted that by the end of September 2022, all socially significant objects were connected to the Internet - about 76 thousand in Russia.

According to DataReport, by mid-2022, there were 129.8 million Internet users in Russia. The level of Internet penetration was estimated by experts at 89% of the total population, the one-year increase was 4.7% (+ 5.8 million), and this is the highest result since 2018. According to researchers, a little more than 16 million people living in Russia do not use the Internet by mid-2022. Although analysts note that the actual numbers may differ for the better due to problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In general, Russian citizens spend an average of almost 8 hours a day on the Internet. They mainly sit on social networks, instant messengers, and also watch videos and discuss news. Yandex and Google almost single-handedly share the search engine market in Russia.

According to Ookla, the average speed of wired Internet connection in Russia as of January 2022 is 61.65 Mbps, and mobile - 17.84 Mbps. Both there and there, the speed increased by 21%. The predominant majority of Russians (106 million) use social networks. Over the year, their number increased by 7 million (+ 7.1%).^[14]

The share of households connected to the Network reaches 84%

The Institute for Statistical Research and Knowledge Economics of the Higher School of Economics analyzed, based on Rosstat data for 2021, regional differences in the degree of digitalization of households and the level of digital skills of the population, publishing a report on September 15, 2022.

In general, according to the ISIEZ HSE, the share of households connected to the Network has noticeably increased in Russia - as of September 2022, it reaches 84%. In a number of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, this figure is lower, for example, the Internet is absent in every fifth household in the Novgorod and Oryol regions, the republics of Mari El and Mordovia. Read more here.

2021

Who does not use the Internet in Russia and why?

Coverage is expanding every year, Internet but some Russians still do not use it. The Institute for Statistical Research and Knowledge Economics HSE analyzed possible reasons on the basis of data official statistics and reported this on January 24, 2023.

The share of households without Internet access in Russia has roughly halved over the past seven years (from 30.1% in 2014 to 16% in 2021) (Chart 1). The gap between the city and the countryside is also narrowing: in 2014, the indicator differed by 18 pp, in 2021 - by 8 pp. At the same time, a significant level of diversification by region remains. In some constituent entities of the Russian Federation, less than 5% of households are not connected to the Internet: in the [Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug [| Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug]] (1.5%), the Magadan Region (2.7%) and the Chechen Republic (3.8%). In a number of other regions, the share of such households exceeds 25%: the republics of Mari El (28%) and Mordovia (26.3%), Novgorod (27%) and Orlovskaya (25.5%) regions.

Most often (71.6% of households that are not connected to the Internet) explain this by lack of interest or simple reluctance (Fig. 2). About half as often (35.8%) indicate a lack of skills for working on the network. In some cases, the spread of the Internet is constrained by financial reasons, such as high tariffs for access services (12.1%) and the cost of equipment to connect it (11.1%). About 5% of households that do not have access to the Internet note a lack of technical connectivity.

Following the decrease in the share of households not connected to the Internet, the share of Russians who have never used it also decreases: in 2018 it was 18% on average in the country, in 2021 - already 12% (Chart 3). As expected, their largest share remains in the regions with the largest specific gravity of households without a network connection: in Novgorod (23.7%) and Orlovskaya (22.9%) regions, the republics of Mari El (21.1%) and Mordovia (20.7%).

90.1% of Russians who have never used the Internet are people aged 55 and over. Moreover, if in the category under 55 the share of those who do not use the Internet does not exceed 5%, then in older age groups it is quite high: in the age cohort 55-64 years old - 12.9%, in the group 65-74 years old - 35.5%, and among Russians aged 75 years and older - 69.3% (Fig. 4).

To develop digital skills among representatives of older age groups, the state is implementing various educational projects. For example, a number of computer literacy courses designed for different levels of training - from basic (information search, communication, etc.) to more advanced (including the use of government services), include the program "Active longevity" of the national project "Demography." One of the basic ones - the course "ABC of the Internet," in 2014 developed by PJSC Rostelecom together with the Pension Fund of Russia - has already passed about 400 thousand pensioners.

Other socio-demographic characteristics also affect the refusal to access the Internet. It was never used by 9.9% of men and 14.5% of women. Among rural residents, the indicator is 17.6%, urban - 10.7%. There is also a noticeable gap in the level of education: only 3.3% of Russians with higher education have never used the Internet, and among those who do not have a basic general education - 40.4%.

The reasons for not using the Internet almost completely coincide with the reasons for the lack of access to the Internet in the household. The most common factor is the unwillingness to use it (69.1% of Russians who have never used the Internet). This is followed by a lack of necessary skills (37%) and financial reasons (10.4%)^[15]

The number of active Internet users in Russia has grown by a third

From 2017 to 2021, the number of active Internet users (published online daily or almost every day) increased by 24 million people, or more than a third. This is evidenced by the data of the analytical service of the audit and consulting network FinExpertiza, which were released at the end of September 2022.

According to the study, in 2021 the share of active Internet users was 76.7% of the total population over 15 years old. Five years earlier, there were 56.2% active Internet users. According to experts, in 2021, 92.3 million Russians used the Internet almost daily.

From the report, published at the end of September 2022, it also follows that in recent years the age structure of the Internet audience has significantly changed. The share of users over 60 years old increased 2.5 times, the share of young people decreased by a quarter. In 2017, the largest share was in youth from 15 to 34 years old - 50.7%, but at the end of 2021 it decreased to 37.7%. Experts attribute the decrease in the share of young users not only to demographic reasons, but also to the growing popularity of the Internet among the older generation.

{{quote 'And if the share of middle-aged users from 35 to 59 years old showed a rather insignificant increase - by 5.1 percentage points to 48.7%, then the share of daily users among pensioners from 60 years and older increased 2.5 times, to 13.6%. This is due not only to the demographically determined aging of the population, but also to the growing popularity of the Internet among a mature and age audience, as well as an increase in the level of general computer literacy, "explained Elena Trubnikova, President of FinExpertiza. }} The largest increase in the number of active network users from 2017 to 2021. recorded in Chechnya (by 121.5%, that is, more than twice), Leningrad Region (by 58.2%), Dagestan (by 58%), Ulyanovsk Region (by 57.5%), Ryazan Region (by 55.9%).

Most of all daily Internet users were counted in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (94.3% of the population are 15 years old and older), Chechnya (93.7%), the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (90.6%), the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (89.2%) and the Magadan Region (88.5%). The least active users are in the Tver region (61.5%), Lipetsk region (61.6%), Mari El and Novgorod region (64.2% each), Kaluga region (65%) and Ryazan region (65.6%).

The calculations are based on data from a sample survey of the population on the use of information technologies and information and telecommunication networks. Respondents aged 15 and over took part in the Rosstat survey, living in 64 thousand households throughout the country.

According to Mediascope estimates, Russians began to spend more time on YouTube: the figure began to grow in July and August 2022. Experts attribute the trend to the desire of some Internet users to "fence off the news agenda." YouTube is also looking for old films that have disappeared from Russian online cinemas.^[16]

The share of active Internet users rose to 83.4%

According to the Institute for Statistical Research and Economics of Knowledge of the Higher School of Economics, for 2019-2021. the share of active Internet users (entering the network more than once every three months) among Russians aged 15 years and older increased from 77.5 to 83.4%. These trends are also noticeable among the elderly population: if in 2019 67.4% of residents of the country aged 55-64 used the Internet, then in 2021 - already 81.1%. In the group of 65-74 years during this period, the figure increased from 39.5 to 52.9%.

The expansion of the Internet audience also occurred among the population over 75 years old, although over 80% of representatives of this group still do not use the capabilities of the network. Thus, the problem of digital exclusivity of senior citizens remains relevant. Read more here.

Rosstat: 30% of households in Russia do not have Internet access

In July 2021, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) published a study in which it reported that 28.6% of Russian households do not have home access to the Internet. However, most of them cannot establish it due to lack of funds or for other reasons.

The least families with access to home Internet in villages with a population of less than 200 people - 51.5%, in villages with a population of up to 1000 people this figure is slightly lower - 50.3%. At the same time, 70.5% of families surveyed by Rosstat do not have a home phone. 38.3% do not have a computer, only 1.4% live without a mobile phone.

It is noted that the Internet is absent not only from residents of remote settlements, but also from cities. 24% of urban households do not have access to the network and 43.5% of rural households do not.

According to the study, 23.6% of households that do not have internet access could connect it if they had a desire, but 24.6% do not have the financial opportunity for this, and 51.8% cannot do it for other reasons.

This study was conducted among representatives of various groups and segments of the population in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation among 60 thousand households.

Rosstat data generally confirm the conclusion that Mediascope previously made. The company found that 67% of Russians use a smartphone to access the network. It remains the main device for Internet surfing.

In July 2021, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that access to the Internet throughout Russia, including in the most remote settlements, will be provided by 2030. The head of the Government of the Russian Federation also noted that the elimination of digital inequality remains one of the priorities of the state. In his opinion, in the modern world, free access to the Internet has become an important criterion for the quality of life.^[17]

2020: Every fifth Russian has never used the Internet

Every fifth Russian (22%) has never used the Internet, follows from the results of a survey by the Public Opinion Foundation, which were published on May 22, 2020.

When asked about the timing of the last use Internet , 69% of respondents answered that in the last day, 4% - in the last week, 1% - in the last month, 1% - in the last three months, 1% - in the last six months, 2% - more than a year ago and 22% have never used the Internet. People were interviewed by phone from May 15 to 17 inclusive.

Of those who come out to eat at least once a month, the majority use both mobile and home Internet (51%). 27% use only mobile Internet, and 21% only home Internet. The monthly audience of Internet users in Russia is 74% of the population, follows from the survey data. 

The most interesting thing for people on the Internet is to read the news and be aware of what is happening in the world (41%). 28% of Russians use the Web to communicate, 25% work, 17% study and watch films and programs via the Internet. Slightly less (16%) go to the Internet for social networks, and 13% ‒ for entertainment. 

The majority of respondents (73%) believe that they spend on the network "as much as necessary." 17% are sure that they spend too much time on the network, 8% - too little.

More often than others, respondents aged 18 to 30 (24%) talk about excessive Internet use, and respondents from 46 to 60 most often believe that they spend "as much as necessary" on the network (77%).^[18]

Half of older people use the Internet, and a third of them are active users. They communicate on social networks (57%), search for information related to the topic of health (49%), use instant messengers for calls and video calls (46%), analyze data on goods and services (45%). For the most part, older users go online from home.

2019

Growth in the number of home wired Internet users by 1% to 33.4 million or 60% of households

In 2019, the number of home wired Internet users in Russia compared to 2018 increased by only 1% to 33.4 million. This follows from the report of TMT Consulting. According to analysts, the penetration of household services approached 60%. In money, the market grew by 4.4% to 143.3 billion rubles.

If in Russia the penetration rate BROADBAND ACCESSInternet was about 60%, then in the saturated Moscow market the indicator reached 88% (there are 4.2 million subscribers in the capital). In money, the volume of the Moscow market in 2019 turned out to be equal to 16 billion rubles.^[19]

The average monthly subscriber account (ARPU) has increased by 9 rubles. up to 359 rubles, also reports TMT Consulting. Company analyst Irina Yakimenko connects this growth with the flow of subscribers to faster, and therefore higher tariffs. Yakimenko also says about the rise in Internet prices. Operators adjust tariffs, including archival ones, taking into account the increase in VAT, as well as regulatory requirements that cause additional costs - such as the Yarovaya law, for example, she notes.

Since January 2019, the cost of Internet access in Russia has increased. The cost of their services was increased by MGTS (a subsidiary of MTS), RiNet (in the fall of 2019, Er-Telecom announced the purchase of this provider) and others. RiNet explained the rise in prices by the entry into force of a number of initiatives requiring "multimillion-dollar costs": including the law on increasing VAT from 18% to 20% and the Yarovaya law.

Most of the home Internet users in Russia (71%) in 2019 were served by five Internet providers, according to the report of TMT Consulting. Analysts call MTS the leader in absolute subscriber base growth in 2019: the number of operator's Internet users increased by 235,000 (by 7.2%). The MTS home Internet user base grew both in Moscow and in the regions.

The growth took place both at the expense of the regions of Russia and at the expense of MGTS in Moscow and the Moscow region (the company is actively expanding the network and increasing the subscriber base in the Moscow region).

In 2019, MTS continued to develop convergent proposals in the regions of Russia. At the same time, MTS is the only operator who, in addition to standard telephony, the Internet, cable TV or IPTV, also allows you to connect to satellite TV services.

At the end of the year, VimpelCom became the leader in relative subscriber base growth. The number of users of the company's broadband Internet access increased by 9% in 2019 (by almost 217,000 subscribers). Convergent Offerings (FMCs) continue to play a significant role in the strategic development of the company's fixed business.

The subscriber base of converged offers increased by 20% compared to the same period last year and exceeded 1.3 million. Thus, the share of FMC customers in the total subscriber base of broadband access was 50%. A significant increase in the number of users in 2019 is associated with the attractiveness of family offers, as well as with access to new territories due to active construction.

Rostelecom increased its base by 139,000 subscribers (or 1.2%). The operator also became the most prominent participant in the mergers and acquisitions market: it bought more than 10 Internet providers, including Alliance Telecom, Promete and Summa Telecom, the report said^[20].

AYR-Telecom"" remained in second place in the list of leading broadband access operators in the Russian Federation. In 2019, the company's growth rate in the B2C segment slowed down compared to previous periods and amounted to 1.4%. In 2019, the operator somewhat reduced business activity in the field. M&A The company grew primarily organically for the first 9 months of 2019. The operator was aimed at completing the integration processes of previously purchased assets and ensuring economic efficiency from investments made.

Nevertheless, at the end of the year, several important transactions took place, including the acquisition of one of the oldest Moscow Internet providers Kronics Plus (RiNet brand), thanks to which ER-Telecom entered the consumer market. Moscow

In the Moscow market for fixed Internet access services, MGTS took the first place in terms of revenue and number of subscribers in 2019 with shares of 37% and 36%, respectively. Rostelecom is in second position in both indicators, VimpelCom is in third.

The B2B segment of the Russian broadband access market has almost ceased to grow. Leaders

The volume of the Russian market for broadband Internet access in the segment of legal entities (B2B) at the end of 2019 amounted to 55.4 billion rubles, an increase of 0.2% compared to 2018. The number of subscribers increased by 0.3% to 1.84 million, according to data from TMT Consulting.

According to experts, the program for connecting socially significant objects had a positive impact on the broadband access market in the corporate sector, the first stage of which fell on the fourth quarter of 2019.

The inflow of revenue in the Internet broadband access market in the public sector in 2019 was partially offset by a decrease in revenue in the SMB sector: the growing popularity of package offers, including both fixed and mobile services and cloud solutions, led to a decrease in the profitability of each of the services, in particular, the broadband access, basic for all service packages.

Rostelecom remains the leader in the business segment of the fixed broadband access market, whose share in 2019 was 38% in revenue and 42% in terms of the number of subscribers. The company's dominance in TMT Consulting is explained by the fact that Rostelecom has a network with the largest capacity compared to other operators, and is also traditionally one of the main providers of communication services for state organizations - both at the federal level and at the local level.

In second place is located, MTS in third - VimpelCom"." Analysts note that MTS and VimpelCom traditionally share the second or third place - both operators are well represented both in the capital and in the regions and offer similar services both in composition and in cost, working with customers of all scales.

According to the results of 2019, the four leading Internet providers accounted for 64% of the subscriber base of broadband Internet access in the B2B segment and the same amount of revenue.^[21]

The number of Internet users in Russia increased by 6 million people

By the end of 2019, Russia had 95.9 million Internet users against 90 million a year earlier. In 2018, this audience grew by 3% relative to, according to the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC), whose updated data were released on March 4, 2020.

Most Russians access the Internet using mobile devices - in 2019, their number reached 85.2 million people. Such an audience of the Internet in Russia has become more people entering the Network through stationary devices, back in 2017, Vedomosti notes.

The publication also cites the following data from RAEK: in 2019, the number of consumers of legal content, including free, amounted to 80 million users. At the same time, the paid consumption model of online video content began to dominate advertising, and streaming services turned into the main source of consumption of music content. This trend also affected the legislative policy: 2019 was the first in the last six years without changes in anti-piracy legislation, noted in the Russian Association of Electronic Communications.^[22]

Almost 5 trillion rubles - the volume of those market segments that we classify as the Internet economy. These are Internet advertising, cloud service access infrastructure, e-commerce, transport services. All segments grew well for 2019. Especially good indicators were in the advertising segment. For the first time, the advertising segment confidently bypassed TV advertising and became the main advertising market, - said the chief analyst  of RAEKKaren Ghazaryan at the round table "Internet in Russia: state, trends and development prospects."

According to GfK analysts, as of the end of 2019, more than 24 million Russian residents do not use the Internet.

Internet audience in Russia has grown due to pensioners

In 2019, the number of Internet users over 16 in Russia reached 94.4 million people against 91 million a year earlier. Thus, about 79.8% of the country's adult population uses the Network, according to a GfK study.

Analysts explained the increase in audience due to the older generation by the fact that Internet users are aging, but retain the habit of receiving information and entertainment online.

In addition, younger family members help elders update gadgets: they buy themselves more modern devices, and give their morally outdated, but quite functional smartphones to grandparents. Also, this growth stimulates the development of public services, online payments, content for older generations, "Petr Zalessky, a representative of GfK, told RBC.

The fastest growing audience was from 65 years old: 36% of people began to use the Internet by the end of 2019 against 26% in 2018. In the category of users aged 50-64, the share increased from 63% to 66%.

In Russia, they plan  to teach digital literacy to pensioners. Older people will be taught how to use a computer and smartphone, as well as how to resist scammers on the network.

The share of pre-retirees who use the Internet outside the home has increased. If in 2017 there were 25% of them, then in 2019 - 33%. Among adolescents, this figure reaches 67%. In addition, 60% of working citizens use the Internet at work.

More than 24 million people (20.2% of the population over 16 years old) do not use the Internet at all. Among the most common reasons, respondents named the lack of need for it (48.4%), inability to use it (35.7%) and the lack of necessary equipment (14.1%). GfK analysts call other reasons expensive access to the Web and difficulties in reading small text, as well as a fundamental refusal to use the Internet.^[23]

RAEC data

The audience of the Runet is 96.9 million people, penetration Internet - 78.1%. Mobile audience traditionally demonstrates growth, in 2019 it amounted to 85.2 million people. We can expect that in the near future the mobile audience will be equal in volume to the Runet audience.

The key area of ​ ​ activity of ROCIT - the Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies for Measuring Digital Literacy of Citizens and an important project of this year was the All-Russian Educational Action "Digital Dictation," which took place in May 2019 and covered 39,398 people: about thirty thousand adults (30,325 people) and a little less than ten thousand adolescents 14-17 years old (9073 people). The average digital literacy rate of all participants was 7.15 out of 10 points.

The FAS accusation of inaction, due to which Rostelecom receives 2-4 billion rubles of super-profits every year

On December 5, 2019, it became known about a complaint that the director of the Association of Telecommunications Operators (ASTO, unites ten regional communications companies) Alexey Leontyev letter to the head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemyev. It claims that the regulator's employees were negligent in considering cases against Rostelecom.

The ASTO claims that the FAS has repeatedly canceled the decisions of its regional departments in St. Petersburg, Chelyabinsk, Astrakhan and Volgograd regions to inflate Rostelecom prices for providing space in the telecom sewer for placing communication cables.

The authors of the complaint explain the divergence of positions of regional and federal officials of the antimonopoly service by the fact that the latter "actually sabotaged the investigations." According to their estimates, due to the inaction of the regulator, the state operator annually receives an excess profit of 2-4 billion rubles.

ASTO asks Artemyev to conduct an independent and open investigation of the activities of the communications management commission in the FAS.

Telecom operators have three options for laying a cable: through a communication sewer, on the roofs of houses or on the supports of power lines (power lines). However, often energy grid companies are reluctant to share space on their lines, and there are restrictions on laying cables through the air, for example, on the length of the span between houses, says Alexey Leontyev. According to him, many corporate customers, in particular banks , state structures strictly require the communication service provider to pass the cable through the sewer, which should guarantee the protection of wires from external influences.

With high prices for services, Rostelecom will win twice: it makes a profit from those who are ready to pay for sewers, and has a competitive advantage for large orders, he said.[24]

Russia is the eighth in terms of the number of Internet users

Currently, there are 109.5 million Internet users in Russia, making it the eighth largest country in the world. Such data are given in the report on new approaches to protecting competition in the digital economy, presented yesterday by the BRICS Antimonopoly Center within the framework of the VI Conference on Competition under the auspices of BRICS^[25].

The report of the BRICS Antimonopoly Center includes recommendations for antimonopoly agencies to work with new challenges of the digital era. According to one of them, regulators should be more active in limiting the growth of the economic power of digital platforms, in particular, by limiting their appetites to absorb competitors and penetrate neighboring markets. The report also gives an analysis of the competitive dynamics in the context of the large-scale digitalization of the global economy, and an analysis of the problems of antimonopoly regulation in digital markets around the world and the latest experience of the BRICS countries. Specialists of the BRICS Antimonopoly Center have identified regulatory gaps in those jurisdictions where the development of the digital economy is ahead of legislation and law enforcement practice. In addition, they compared the approaches of the BRICS antimonopoly regulators.

The report also contains statistics indicating the development of digitalization in the countries of the world. For example, data on the number of Internet users in the largest countries of the world are given. The first place in such an indicator, according to the report, as of March 2019, is occupied by China, numbering 829 million Internet users. India is in second place with 560 million such users. The third place belongs to the United States of America, in which there are 293 million Internet users. Russia in the ranking presented in the report belongs to the eighth place - there are 109.5 million Internet users in it.

2018

Data Institute for Statistical Research and Knowledge Economics (ISIEZ) HSE

In recent years, the demand for voice communication services by the population has significantly decreased, while broadband infrastructure has received more opportunities for development. According to the ITU, in 2018 the number of active mobile Internet subscribers in the world increased to 69.3 per 100 people. population, and their absolute number reached 5.3 billion. The average annual growth rate for 2010-2018 was 25.2%. The maximum dynamics was recorded in 2010-2015, since 2016 the pace has slowed down (to 12% by 2018^[26]

Despite the global trend of population transition to mobile Internet, the number of fixed access subscribers continues to grow in both developed and developing countries (Chart 2). In 2018, this figure in the world was 14.1 per 100 people. population, or 1.1 billion in absolute terms. The average annual growth rate in 2010-2018 was at the level of 8% (in 2017-2018 - 6%).

In terms of the spread of mobile and fixed broadband access to the Internet Russia , it exceeds the global average, while being inferior to a number of developed countries. The number of mobile Internet subscribers in our country is 86.2 per 100 people. population, the average annual growth rate for 2011-2018. - 8.8%. The corresponding values ​ ​ for fixed broadband access are 21.7 per 100 people. population and 8.5%.

The spread of broadband provided the world's population with ubiquitous access to the Internet, noticeably increasing the global Internet audience. So, according to the ITU at the end of 2018, 3.9 billion people were provided with the Internet, or 51.2% of the world population. In developed countries, 80.9% of adults use the Network, in developing countries - significantly less (45.3%).

In 2018, 57.8% of households (+ 7% compared to the previous year) had access to the Internet in the world, including 85.3% in developed countries and 48.3% in developing countries. In Russia, by 2018, the indicator reached 76.6%, the annual increase in 2010-2018. averaged 6%.

In our country, the total audience of the Internet (those who use it at least once a year) exceeded 83% of the adult population in 2018, including almost 69% who go online daily. In terms of the activity of using the Internet, Russia is at the same level as leading countries and even slightly ahead of them, taking into account the achieved level of development of telecommunications infrastructure.

32 million Russians use the Internet only on mobile devices

According to the All-Russian Omnibus GfK, by the beginning of 2019, the audience of Internet users in Russia among the 16 + population amounted to 90 million people (+ 3 million people last year) and reached 75.4% of the country's adult population.

However, the growth of the Internet audience itself is no longer the main news, GfK said in a statement on January 15, 2019. In recent years, the Internet audience has been growing slowly and mainly due to the connection of older users to the Network. At the same time, among young people and middle-aged people, Internet penetration is close to the limit.

The main trend in recent years is the growth of mobile Internet. Thus, by the beginning of 2019, the share of Internet users on mobile devices reached 61%, or 73 million people. A year earlier, this figure was 56%. First of all, the audience of users who access the Internet from smartphones is growing. But the use of tablets has even slightly decreased compared to 2017, noted in GfK.

An important qualitative shift in recent times is the rapid growth of the audience of mobile only users - those who use only mobile access to the Web, the company emphasized. A year ago, this type of user only found itself on the market (18% of all Internet users). Over the year, this segment doubled and by the beginning of 2019 amounted to more than a third (35%) of all Internet users in Russia, analysts calculated.

The rapid growth of the mobile only segment changes the entire face of the Internet. The Internet in the near future may become primarily mobile, and only secondarily desktop. For the Internet segment, this means a change in priorities in the development of digital products, communications, advertising. Manufacturers, retailers and content providers should make sure that their current products are ready for mobile users, says Sergey Ketov, head of media research at GfK Rus.

Internet penetration compared to other countries

2017

Omnibus GfK Rus

According to the All-Russian Omnibus GfK, by the beginning of 2018, the audience of Internet users in Russia among the 16 + population was 87 million people, which is 3 million more than a year ago.

"In 2015-2016, the reach of the Internet audience remained stable. Almost the only significant change was the growth of the mobile Internet audience. In 2017, we again returned to quantitative growth - the Internet penetration rate in Russia increased from 70.4% to 72.8% among the 16 + population, and the mobile Internet audience increased by 20% - from 47% to 56%, "comments Sergey Ketov, head of media research at GfK Rus

.

Among young people, the level of Internet use reached almost maximum values ​ ​ two years ago. Therefore, the growth of the Internet audience in recent years is mainly due to older people. Over the past year, among people aged 55 and over, the share of Internet users has increased by a quarter, and the share of mobile Internet users - 2 times. However, the level of Internet penetration here remains low - only every third (36%) Russian over 55 years old uses the Internet. For comparison, in the 30-54 age group, this figure was 83% by the beginning of 2018, and among young people - 98%.

The audience of Internet users on mobile devices is growing at an impressive pace. At the end of 2017, it amounted to 67 million people. The growth in the audience of mobile Internet is primarily associated with an increase in the penetration of smartphones - at the beginning of 2018, more than half of adult residents of Russia (51.5%) used Internet access from smartphones. Tablet use has been growing slightly in recent years.

Increasingly, a mobile device is today the only platform for users to access the Internet. 16 million Russians aged 16 and over (13.2%) use the Internet only on mobile devices. The highest share of "only mobile" users is among young people about 30 years old (18.4%), as well as in rural areas (16.4%).

Russia ranked second in the world in terms of cheapness of communication and the Internet

According to research by the World Economic Forum, Russia ranks second in the world after Hong Kong in terms of the cheapness of communication services and the Internet. This was announced today at the board of the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation by the Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov. "At the same time, it should be borne in mind that Hong Kong is equal in area to Moscow, and in population to half of Moscow," Nikiforov said. According to him, the four-generation LTE communication technology is already available in the territory where 70% of the Russian population lives.

"Now there are 120 thousand base stations of the format in Russia. LTE This is a quarter of all cellular base stations in the Russian Federation. We must reach the level of availability of modern communications - 97%, "Nikiforov said. The Minister said that as part of the elimination of digital inequality in Russia, 35 thousand km of fiber-optic communication lines have been built. Work goes with 71 subjects. Especially Nikiforov noted the laying of an underwater communication line from Sakhalin to Magadan and from Sakhalin to Kamchatka. "If in 2012 there were 32 settlements with more than 10 thousand people, where the fiber-optic network did not come. Now there are 4 such points left. And for each of them we have an understanding when the fiber-optic communication line will come there, "Nikiforov

said.

See more The countries with the most inexpensive broadband access named.

Mediascope data

About 87 million Russians over 21 years old, or 71% of the population, are users, Internet according to the latest data from the meter (Mediascope formerly TNS Russia). According to "," Kommersant the increase in October 2016 - March 2017 amounted to 2%.

The greatest growth dynamics is demonstrated by the audience using mobile devices and Smart TVs to access the Internet. The number of Internet users on mobile platforms increased by 9% to 66 million people. 54% of Russians over 12 years old use gadgets to access the network. At the same time, the number of tablet owners decreases - by 8% in the period under consideration. The monthly audience of users in this segment is 19% of the population over 12 years old.

The desktop is also becoming less popular - the audience of Internet users decreased by 4%, accounting for 54% of the population. However, these devices spend the most time - 127 minutes out of 237 minutes on the Internet per day on average.

The largest growth in the Internet audience fell on smartphones (+ 15%, up to 46% of Russians) and Smart TV (+ 14%, up to 10% of Russians over 12 years old). Users spend an average of 83 minutes on mobile applications and 27 minutes on browsers.

Despite the growth of the Internet audience, this practically does not affect TV. 70% of the population from 12 to 64 years old still watch TV at least a minute a day. The average television viewing time is 248 minutes, while in 2012 it was estimated at 238 minutes. However, the growth came at the expense of the older generation. People aged 18-34 years began to watch TV less - from 163 to 156 minutes. Russians over 65 years old devote almost an hour more time to TV - from 344 to 402 minutes.

Every third man over 65 in Russia uses the Internet

Every third man over 65 years old (33%) uses the Internet, but only a fifth of women (19%) in this age category go online. Among users of other ages, the difference is not so noticeable - about as many men as women use the Internet, Izvestia wrote in April 2017, citing data from Mediascope (formerly TNS Russia).

In total Internet , about 71% of Russians are users, or 86.7 million people go online every month.

"We are seeing a gradual penetration of the Internet into different age groups," quotes the publication of Mediascope's director of Internet research Inessa Ishunkina. - At the first stage, young people became users, then involvement increased among middle-aged Russians, but now we see an increase in the number of older users. In all age groups, at the stage when Internet penetration did not exceed 30-40%, we recorded a shift towards the male audience. With the increase in Internet penetration in the group, the percentage of use among men and women is leveling off. "

The publication also notes that women from the 65 + category are more likely to attend computer literacy courses, while men prefer to master technology on their own.

RAEC Data and Forecast for 2020

'Runet audience in 2017 - 90 million people (73% of the population) - Runet audience in 2017. Every seventh Russian uses the Internet at least 1 times a month. Up to 85% of Russians will have Internet access by 2020. Every seventh Russian uses the Internet at least 1 times a month. Up to 85% of Russians will have Internet access by 2020. 73 million users (59% of the population) use the Internet through mobile devices at least 1 times a month. 20.9% use exclusively mobile Internet. Mobile audience Internet in Russia in 2017 for the first time exceeded the desktop audience, "said Sergey Plugotarenko.

Speaking about development, design, interfaces, and usability, Sergey Plugotarenko noted that today more than 5,000 state portals operate today in Russia. Portals do not have a single standard, they look different and have a different interface. In the near future, experts expect the emergence of a single digital platform - a marketplace with a high-quality interface that provides services for authorities, citizens and businesses. The launch of the platform should take place in 2018.

According to the study, the impact of Internet markets on the economy is growing by 11% per year, and by 2021 the contribution of net Internet markets to GDP will be 4.7%. RAEK predicts that by 2020 up to 85% of Russians will have Internet access in the Russian Federation, and by 2021 the mobile economy will become more than the agricultural industry. Already today, the mobile economy of Russia is the 11th largest economy in Russia, and in the next 5 it is predicted to grow by 10.7% per year.

The number of Internet users in Russia will grow to 86.7 million by 2020. At the same time, a large share today uses mobile devices to access the network. According to the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC), the largest percentage of mobile users - among residents of 12-24 years old - 89.8% of them most often go online from smartphones, writes RNS in April 2017.

For 25-44-year-olds, the main device for accessing the network is a computer or laptop (75.4%), but 74.7% still use smartphones for this purpose. 45.8% of people over 45 prefer computers and laptops.

The mobile component will grow, RAEK predicts. Now it accounts for 3.7% of Russia's GDP, and by 2021 this share will grow to 4.7%. The growth rate of mobile technologies in the next five years will amount to 10.7%, and more than 7.5% of economic growth will fall on this segment - this is higher than that of agriculture. More than a million people are already working in the industry, by 2021 the number of employed citizens in the segment will grow to 1.5 million.

2016

The website of the Association of Internet Trade Companies (AKIT) presents statistics, according to which at the time of the first half of 2016, 84 million compatriots already have access to the worldwide network. Of these, 37.2% of Russians use smartphones to access the Internet, and 19.2% use tablets.

Omnibus GfK Rus

• At the end of 2016, the total Internet audience in Russia did not grow
• Only the audience of mobile Internet users is growing: by 6 million at the end of 2016

According to the All-Russian Omnibus GfK, in 2016 the audience of Internet users in Russia aged 16 and over remained at the level of 2015 - 70.4%, which is about 84 million people.

So far, Internet audiences have grown at an impressive rate. The dynamic growth of the Internet audience at the end of 2014 and in 2015 was caused, among other things, by the rush growth in sales of equipment during a period when consumers sought to sell cheaper rubles and buy digital equipment at old prices. Thus, in 2016, the market simply won back the previously realized demand for equipment.

Almost the only growth zone in the Russian digital technology market in 2016 was smartphones, and due to this, the audience of the mobile Internet grew. And, of course, the activity of telecom operators affected, who made a confident breakthrough in the promotion of "mobile" packages in 2015-2016.

The growth of the Russian audience of Internet users on mobile devices in 2016 amounted to 6 million people. Today, 56 million Russians aged 16 and over use the Internet on mobile devices - smartphones and tablets (46.6% of the total audience). At the same time, audience growth was observed only on smartphones - from 37.2% in 2015 to 42.1% in 2016. The use of the Internet on tablets has not changed much.

We can expect that in 2017 the growth of the mobile Internet audience will continue.

Against the background of the existing potential of smartphones in terms of replacing mobile phones (in Russia, about 30% of sales in pieces are still accounted for by "dialers"), we expect a stable growth in smartphone sales by 5% in 2017 (in pieces).

In favor of the fact that for many Russians the smartphone becomes a device for regular Internet access, they also say the technical characteristics of the purchased devices. Nearly half of all devices sold last year have a screen size of 5 inches or more. People also choose a technological processor (almost 80% are 4-core devices). More than half of the smartphones sold in 2016 are LTE-enabled devices.

Subscriber base of broadband access increased by 4.7%

The number of broadband access subscribers in the segment of individuals in Russia in 2016 reached 31.3 million. According to TMT Consulting, the penetration of the service amounted to 56%, the market volume - 125.6 billion rubles. The ARPU indicator is estimated at 341 rubles.

Over the year, the subscriber base grew by 4.7%, revenues - by 2.9%, mainly due to increased activity in promoting the services of all leading Russian Internet providers. The agency notes that in 2016, operators switched from tactics of attracting new customers at the expense of short-term shares to work to retain a subscriber. At the same time, more favorable than competitors, financial conditions are offered by individual operators on an ongoing basis, which increased price competition and negatively affected the financial performance of the market.

Over the previous years, ARPU has remained stable, but in 2016 it showed a decrease. This, among other things, was facilitated by the evolution of converged offers: operators are moving from bundling fixed-line services (Internet + TV and Internet + TV + telephony) to convergence of fixed and mobile services. Providing operators with an increase in profitability from one subscriber and increasing their loyalty, service packages allow the subscriber to actually pay less for each of the components of the package than if he purchased them separately.

According to the results of 2016, the five Internet providers form 68% of the broadband access subscriber base in the B2C segment and serve 64% of Moscow subscribers-individuals. Rostelecom remains the leader in absolute base growth, having increased the number of users by 7% or 760 thousand subscribers. The driver of the operator's growth remains the construction and modernization of networks (the transition to FTTx and PON access technology), while the company is actively updating tariff and package lines. In addition, in 2016, the operators AIST and Morton Telecom were acquired.

ER-Telecom took the second place in terms of absolute subscriber base growth with a result of 305 thousand new customers or 11%. A significant part of the new subscribers was brought by the acquired assets of WestCall and the companies consolidated during 2016 in Irkutsk.

In third place in terms of the increase in the subscriber base is MTS (205 thousand subscribers or 8%), while, unlike the nearest competitors, the growth of the provider's subscriber base in 2016 was only organic. The company has been working to expand and modernize fixed-line networks in the regions, in particular Siberia and southern Russia.

At the end of the year, the structure of the broadband access market did not undergo significant changes. However, ER- Telecom strengthened its position (by 1 pp compared to 2015), including in connection with active M&A activities. The shares of other operators out of the five largest for the year have changed insignificantly.

According to the results of 2016, MGTS continued to strengthen its position in the Moscow market, showing an increase of 7% compared to. Among the other largest operators that showed positive dynamics in the capital market in 2016 are Rostelecom and MegaFon (NetByNet). The rest of the operators from the top 5 Moscow providers could not keep part of the subscribers.

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications proposed to consolidate the right to the Internet by

The Ministry of Communications and Mass Media proposed in February 2016 to consider Internet access as part of the constitutional right to information, the Kommersant newspaper writes. ^[27].

The agency has begun developing a bill that will have to facilitate providers' access to apartment buildings.

According to current standards, the consent of two-thirds of homeowners is required to place equipment in such houses.

Since this requirement is practically impossible, providers have to interact with management companies and give them up to 2 percent of annual revenue for the opportunity to access the building. Providers pass these costs on to subscribers, and then prevent the appearance of other telecom operators, explained the interlocutor of Kommersant.

According to the authors of the initiative, this order contradicts the constitutional right of citizens to information.

The right to information is enshrined in paragraph 4 of Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which states that "everyone has the right to freely seek, receive, transmit, produce and disseminate information in any legal way." Paragraph 5 of the same article of the Constitution guarantees freedom of the media, and also prohibits censorship.

2015

TMT Consulting

The number of broadband Internet subscribers in the segment of individuals in Russia increased in 2015 by 3.6%, to 29.9 million, the market volume increased by 3.2%, to 121.1 billion rubles, according to the report of TMT Consulting.

"The slowdown is happening as the market saturates. Despite the unfavorable economic situation, there was no significant decrease in growth rates, "analysts say. For comparison, the increase in the subscriber base BROADBAND ACCESSInternet - in 2014 amounted to 5%.

The penetration of the service reached 54%, ARPU amounted to 344 rubles.

According to researchers, the crisis did not have a significant impact on the behavior of private - the service became familiar to them, and its cost is small. At the same time, the crisis situation forced a number of operators to suspend the construction of networks.

"The most noticeable increase in the cost of equipment affected small local players providing services in the regions on outdated networks. Most of the leading players in the Russian broadband access market, with the exception of Rostelecom, completed the construction of infrastructure by 2015, so the economic crisis did not have a significant impact on the plans of these companies, the report says.

According to the results of 2015, the five leading providers form 67% of the subscriber base of broadband Internet access in the B2C segment in Russia, and serve 63% of Moscow subscribers-individuals. About 57% of the total growth of the subscriber base fell on 2 operators: Rostelecom and MTS.

Rostelecom became the leader in absolute subscriber base growth, increasing its customer base by 414 thousand subscribers. The driver of the operator's growth remains the construction and modernization of networks (transition to PON access technology), while the company is actively updating tariff and package lines in regional markets.

The second place in terms of subscriber base growth was taken by MTS with a result of 173 thousand new customers, while in relative terms the company's growth rate was the highest among the Top 5 operators (7%). In 2015, the subscriber base grew both at the expense of MGTS (the Moscow share accounted for about 47% of the subscriber base growth) and at the expense of the regions.

In third place in terms of the increase in the subscriber base is ER-Telecom (92 thousand subscribers). The growth was both organic and due to mergers and acquisitions.

The increase in the subscriber base of the TransTeleCom operator amounted to 57 thousand subscribers (or 4%). For the third year in a row, VimpelCom demonstrated the most modest results among top operators, the outflow of the subscriber base of which in 2015 amounted to 3%.

According to analysts, in the near future, the main source of growth for operators will be the flow of existing subscribers from competitors. Against the background of ARPU stabilization, revenue growth will be comparable to the dynamics of the subscriber base. At the same time, the growth of ARPU from the service will be difficult in conditions of high competition, as well as due to the tendency to package services.

Operators will pay special attention to maintaining the subscriber base, experts predict.

"Realizing that the use of stock tariffs (ending with a sharp jump in the cost of services after the expiration of the share) leads to a high level of outflow of subscribers, operators begin to use new approaches to pricing," the report said.

Analysts also predict increased activity in the field of mergers and acquisitions in connection with the exhaustion of opportunities for organic growth and the deterioration of the position of individual local players.

Omnibus GfK Rus

• Internet audience in Russia increased by another 4 million people and reached the figure of 84 million
• the penetration rate Internet among the population of Russia aged 16 and over reached 70.4% (in 2014 - 67.5%).
• 42% of the adult population of Russia go online from mobile devices

The growth of the Internet audience in Russia in 2015 was mainly due to an increase in the share of middle-aged and older users. Internet penetration among young Russians (16-29 years old) reached the maximum values ​ ​ in previous years and, according to GfK, is now 97%. In 2015, young people actively mastered the Internet from mobile devices. Among the audience of 16-29 years old, the highest share of Internet users from smartphones (70%) and tablets (35%).

POM data

Internet penetration across countries (FOM slide) (2015)

TNS data

The number of Russian Internet users is 82 million as of April 2015. The Internet is used by 66% of Russians over 12 years old, and 60 million people go online every day

In 2014, for the first time, a decrease in the share of desktop Internet users was recorded, it amounted to 1%. Against this background, mobile Internet is developing especially well.

50 million residents of Russia, or 61% of the total audience of Runet, are active users of mobile Internet, and 11.8 million Russians enter the network only from smartphones and tablets.

The increase in the real audience (number of users) of Runet for the year amounted to only 5% (in 2013 - an increase of 7%), and most popular Internet sites also did not record an increase in the number of users.

Thus, the leader of the Russian segment of the network in terms of attendance, Yandex, was able to increase the share of users by only 0.8% - to 63.07 million people, while the second-ranked Mail.ru had an outflow of 0.2% - to 62.75 million users. The closing three social network "VKontakte" lost 0.8% of the Russian audience and today has 58.62 million users.

2014

Omnibus GfK: Internet 16 + audience in Russia exceeded 80 million people

According to the GfK Omnibus, by the end of 2014, the Internet penetration rate among the Russian population aged 16 and over was 67.5%. Thus, the audience of the Internet 16 + in Russia exceeded 80 million people. Moreover, three quarters of them go online daily or almost every day.

The high growth rate of online audience in Russia ensured the active distribution of mobile devices. By the end of 2014, the audience of Internet users on smartphones reached 21 million people (17.6% the population of 16 +), and the number of Internet users on tablets increased more than 2 times over the year - from 3.5% in 2013 to 8.4% at the end of 2014, and reached 10 million people.

At the same time, the potential for the development of the mobile Internet audience remains colossal. According to the retail audit of GfK, more than 27 million smartphones and 9.2 million tablets were sold in Russia in 2014.

The highest level of Internet penetration is in Moscow (81% of the population 16 +), in large cities this figure is 71%, and in small towns and villages - 62%.

Internet penetration among young Russians (16-29 years old) reached almost the maximum values ​ ​ - 96%. Therefore, the growth of the Internet audience is mainly due to an increase in the share of middle-aged and older users. Among middle-aged people (30-54 years), 79% use the Internet in Russia (an increase of 23% compared to 2013). Among older people (55 +), 25% use the Internet (an increase of 46% compared to 2013).

The GfK omnibus is a regular survey of the population of Russia aged 16 and over using a representative national sample. The cumulative 2014 Omnibus GfK sample size was 11,000 respondents.

RAEK: Runet's audience grew by 4%

Thanks to the accession of Crimea, the Russian Internet audience in 2014 acquired about 700 thousand new users. Internet penetration on the peninsula is significantly lower than the national average of approximately 21%. Such figures were cited in October 2014 at a press conference by Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media Alexei Volin and Director of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC) Sergey Plugotarenko. The Runet audience grew in 2014 by 2.3 million people excluding Crimea, and with Crimea - by 3 million people.

At the end of 2013, there were 2.97 million mobile subscribers, 532 thousand fixed telephony subscribers, 263 thousand broadband access subscribers and 364 thousand pay-TV subscribers in Crimea and Sevastopol. Broadband access penetration, including wireless access, was then 29% on the peninsula. The leaders of the market broadband access Crimea were Ukrtelecom and Kyivstar with shares of 40% and 23%, respectively.

In 2014, Runet's audience grew by only 4%, mainly due to elderly people and residents of small towns. In cities from 100 thousand inhabitants and more, this figure is even less - plus 3%, according to the research company TNS Russia.

Basically, growth falls on small cities with a population of less than 100 thousand people and is 5% (penetration - just over 50%), while in Moscow the growth was 1% (penetration - 80%); and in cities from 800 thousand inhabitants and above and completely zero growth (penetration - 70%). Cities from 100 thousand to 800 thousand inhabitants added 2% per year (penetration - less than 70%).

The audience of the Runet has increased in the last year mainly due to Russians aged 55 and over - the largest age group, uniting 37% of our fellow citizens, and only 8% of them are Internet users, taking into account the 14% annual growth in Internet use.

Most Internet users in the age groups 12-24 and 25-34, but it is users of this age who demonstrate stagnation - there is practically nowhere to grow Internet use in these groups. The audience aged 35-44 and 45-54 grew by only 3% over the year.

An increase in the share of age users with specific preferences in content and consumption models in the future may lead to a change in the entire Runet landscape, experts warn. And the demographic vector aimed at reducing the population and aging it will only support this trend.

By the end of the third quarter of 2014, the Russian Internet audience was 79 million people, or 64% of the total population. TNS Russia includes those Russians who use the Network at least once a month as users.

Putin signed a law on broadband access for the Russian hinterland

In February 2014, the president Vladimir Putin signed a law amending the law on communications, which aims to provide the population Russia with equal access to the modern infrastructure of universal communication services (UUS).

These changes prescribe the installation of at least one collective access point to provide data transfer services and provide access to the Internet without using user equipment in settlements of more than 500 people.

In settlements with a population of 250 to 500 people, in turn, the law provides for the installation of at least one Internet access point using the subscriber's user equipment. At the same time, such a point should be connected using a fiber-optic communication line and provide the ability to transmit data at a speed of at least 10 megabits/s.

On the way to settlements of 250 to 500 people should be connected to the Internet and settlements of 500 to 10 thousand inhabitants.

According to the law, one operator who occupies a significant position in the public communication network in the territories of at least two-thirds of the constituent entities of Russia must provide universal communication services. It is obliged to support the existing UUS infrastructure, which includes payphones and collective Internet access points, as well as undertake to cover up to 250 residents with broadband settlements. This involves the conclusion of a 10-year contract with a single operator in the amount of about 150 billion rubles.

It is planned to attract the necessary funds for this from the Universal Communication Services Fund, which were previously used only for the installation and maintenance of payphones.

"You

won't surprise a modern resident of Russia with payphones. Everyone needs mobile communication and high-speed Internet. And we have found a way to optimize costs and direct them to these priority goals, - says the head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov. "At the expense of the Universal Communication Service Fund, a fundamentally new telecommunications infrastructure based on fiber is being created, which will connect almost the entire country."

As of the end of 2013, the penetration rate of broadband access services in Russia, according to the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, was 55%. According to the plans of the ministry, by 2018, 97% of the country's population should have the opportunity to connect to broadband access. At the same time, the department expects that the main construction work on the laying of fiber-optic communication lines will be carried out in the first three years of operation of universal communication services in the new conditions.

There are 8 million Internet users in Moscow

In the metropolitan department of IT technologies, it was estimated that at the end of 2014, about 8 million people were Internet users. At the same time, the largest increase in audience is observed among people over the age of 55. Over the year, their number among users of the global network increased by 40%.

Various options for paying for services are the main impetus for the development of the Internet. For example, citizens transmitted information about the readings of water and electricity meters a total of 20 and 8 million times. In general, about 90% of pensioners periodically face the need to receive services via the Internet, while the minimum access price makes it available to people with a small level of earnings.

Contributes to an increase in the number of Internet users and the development of public access networks. Free Wi-Fi is available on all branches of the Moscow grid metropolitan, as well as in many parks and pedestrian zones.

At the end of 2014, the number of purchases on the Internet paid using a bank card doubled. The payment market on the public services portal amounted to 3 billion rubles per year, and Muscovites spent 4 billion rubles on the purchase of mobile applications. At the same time, the number of subscribers using modern LTE networks is growing, the speed of the Internet is increasing, and the number of complaints about poor-quality work is decreasing.

Significant growth is also noted in terms of the use of IT technologies to control your own health. For example, the number of gadgets worn (smart watches and so on) designed to monitor the main parameters of life has increased to 2 million devices. The Internet is actively used to make an appointment with a doctor.

2013

Minister of Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation Nikolai Nikiforov (November 2013): "The Russian ICT revolution will take place precisely due to the systemic coverage of broadband access services in cities and towns with a population of 500 or more over the coming years. This will increase the broadband access penetration rate from the current 55% to more than 90% by 2018. 10% increase in broadband access penetration creates the potential for GDP growth by 1.5%, and this is especially important in a cooling economy, when a difficult struggle goes for every percent of growth. We are fighting the same struggle for every percentage of penetration of broadband access services. It is especially difficult to provide communication in hard-to-reach settlements. According to our calculations, about 7% of communication coverage will have to be organized using satellites. To do this, we plan to almost double the satellite constellation by 2018 and increase its throughput by three times.

According to a study by the company Yandex"," conducted in the spring of 2013, even taking into account the inequality in the distribution of income in, Russia only 20% of the country's population cannot afford broadband services. At the same time, access tariffs Internet in our country are the lowest among the G8 countries: the average payment is about 10 per month dollars USA.

Yandex: 86% of new web users live outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg

As a Yandex study (April 2013) showed, compared to 2012, Internet penetration in Russia as a whole increased by 5 percentage points to 52%. The largest contribution to the growth of this indicator was made by cities with a population of less than 100 thousand people. Here, penetration increased by 7 percentage points over the year, reaching the average level in Russia. Villages are still far behind. Apparently, they will not reach the average Russian indicator soon: in 2013, the growth of Internet penetration in villages even slowed down (5 pp versus 8 pp in 2011). In the capitals, penetration has practically ceased to increase, stopping around 70%.

Among the federal districts, only two - Central and Ural - increased their growth rates, the rest showed a decrease. Growth slowed down the most in the Far Eastern Federal District, which a year ago was the leader in this indicator.

Moscow and St. Petersburg, despite the general slowdown, have increased their pace - however, this is due to an increase in the population of megacities, and not due to an increase in Internet penetration (the share of Internet users among residents). The Internet audience is increasing mainly due to the regions - 86% of new users live outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg. This is slightly less than in previous years - then the regions accounted for more than 90% of the new audience.

2012

92% of residents of cities with a population of more than 100 thousand people can go online

According to TNS at the beginning of 2012, 92% of residents of cities with a population of over 100 thousand people already have the opportunity to access the Internet from home, and more than 70% of them use broadband (high-speed) access.

Boom in optics connections to the building

According to statistics from the European Council, in the second half of 2012, the number of new subscribers connected using FTTH ("optics to the building") technology in Russia increased by 2.2 million people - more than in all 27 EU countries combined. At the same time, the total number of households with FTTH connectivity was 7.5 million. This means that over 40% of all fixed broadband lines in Russia are fiber optic.

2011: Internet users up 17%

According to the FOM for autumn 2011, the monthly audience of the Internet in Russia is 54.5 million people, which is about 47% of the total adult population of the country. Since the fall of 2010, the audience has grown by a little more than 17% (by 18% a year earlier). According to comScore, in September 2011, Russia came out on top in Europe in terms of the number of Internet users.

As in previous years, the Internet audience grew mainly due to the regions: more than 93% of new users live outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Internet is most actively distributed in villages: over the year, the audience here has increased by 33%. For comparison: in the capitals, the growth was only about 6%^[28].

At the same time, Moscow and St. Petersburg are still leading by a wide margin in terms of Internet penetration (the ratio of the Network's audience to the population), and villages and cities with a population of up to 100 thousand people lag behind the average level in Russia.

The share of users who access the network daily continues to increase as part of the Internet audience: according to the FOM, from autumn 2010 to autumn 2011 this figure increased from 69 to 75%.

In 2011, the online audience in the regions grew by almost 20%. The highest growth rates were demonstrated by the Far Eastern District, the lowest - by the North-West. In terms of Internet penetration, the Northwestern Federal District is still in the lead, and the Central, Southern and Siberian Districts are lagging behind the average level.

Moscow and St. Petersburg are still overtaking the regions in all indicators of the spread of the Internet and in most indicators of user activity, but the regions are closing the gap with the capitals every year.

• According to the TNS agency, in September 2011, Internet penetration in Moscow ceased to grow, amounting, as in September 2010, to 66%. How the situation will develop until the end of 2011, TNS representative Mikhail Raibman did not undertake to predict. He only stated that the capital's access market is close to saturation. In Germany, Internet penetration is 80%^[29].

The number of Russians using the Internet at least once a month, FOM and TNS is estimated at 60-61 million - this is half of the population over 12 years old. At the beginning of the year, Runet had about 50 million monthly users.

Leading specialist FOM Pavel Lebedev pointed out that only 20 Russian regions still have growth potential - the Republic of Tuva and the Tyumen Region have the largest reserves (26% and 20%, respectively). According to the FOM, the number of constituent entities of the Russian Federation with Internet availability above 50% increased almost threefold over the year (until September 2011), to 21 regions, but there are only eight provinces in the country with users above 1.5 million people. Lebedev and Raibman agree that in the future, the increase in penetration will be provided mainly by users from small cities, older people, as well as mobile Internet users.

• According to the Runet development rating for the first quarter of 2011 (data published on the "Domains of Russia" resource), 72% of users go online daily. At home, 87% of subscribers prefer to enter the network.

The share of mobile Internet users and the consumption of mobile data traffic is actively growing: 18% of the total population of the Russian Federation over 12 years old enter the network through cellular services.

Most users access the Internet at least once a month in the North-West region. There are 56% of them here. The central region is in second place (47%). Penetration in other regions is at the level of 40%.

Since the end of 2009, there has been a stable growth of the Internet audience in cities with a population of 100 to 500 thousand people, cities with a population of less than 100 thousand people and villages. During the winter of 2010-2011, the increase was more than one million people. Analysts believe that in the near future, the growth of Internet users will occur precisely at the expense of medium and small cities.

Every month, 10.8 million Russian citizens access the Internet through cellular services. Every day 2.5 million people use mobile Internet in Russia. This is 18% of users. From February 2010 to February 2011, mobile Internet viewership grew by 19%. The growth of mobile Internet users is outpacing the overall growth of the Internet audience. According to analysts, the consumption of mobile services by smartphone owners exceeds their conversational activity (667 against 531 minutes per month). The average monthly consumption of Internet traffic by smartphone users more than doubled in 2010 - 79 MB versus 35 MB per smartphone. All these data are given on the statistical resource "Domains of Russia."

• As of April 2011, the Runet audience is 57 million users. This was stated by the director of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications Sergei Plugotarenko. According to him, the number of Runet users has increased by 22% over the past year. Of these, 22 million people go online from mobile devices.

According to the research company TNS, 60% of the Russian population uses the Internet.

• On March 18-21, 2011, Levada Center analysts conducted a survey of 1,600 Russian citizens aged 18 and over and found that 62% of them do not use the Internet at all. The survey was conducted on a representative sample in 130 settlements of the country. The statistical error of the study is 3.4%.

Apparently, over the year the situation with the number of Internet users has practically not changed. So, in March 2010, the results of a survey on the use of the Internet in Russia were published by VTsIOM and then, according to the center, 60% of Russian citizens did not use the Internet.

In China, for example, in 2010, the number of Internet users increased by 20.3%, amounting to 33.9% by the end of the year. According to the latest study by the Pew Research Center, in the United States, the number of adult citizens who do not use the Internet at all is 21%.

In Russia, most citizens go online in order to find the information they need (27%). For communication, 18% of respondents use the Internet, for searching and listening to music - 13%, for searching and watching videos - 13%, a similar percentage of respondents use the Internet "for entertainment."

A smaller number of respondents go online to follow the latest news (11%) to figure out what is happening in the country and abroad (6%), buy goods or services (6%), find and read any books (6%), for other purposes the Internet uses 1% of respondents.

2010

In May 2010, statistics on the state of Internet development in St. Petersburg were voiced by Ishunkina Inessa (TNS). So, now there are 2.5 million users in the city and stable growth rates remain compared to Moscow, and the fastest growing group of users is a group of 45 years or more. Dmitry Chistov (RAEK, Internet in Numbers Magazine) said that the Runet audience has 43 million people, over the past year the number of users has grown by 22 percent in Russia (the leader is the Volga Federal District - 8.6%, and in the North-West Federal District - 5.7%).

• Internet in Russia. Summer 2010. FOM. Download Brief Report

• December 20: About a third of the country's population - 46.5 million people use the Internet today, which is about twice as much as in 2008, said Deputy Director of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC) Sergei Grebennikov on Monday at a round table in the State Duma dedicated to summing up the Runet year . According to him, this is the data of the Public Opinion Foundation, in which the indicators of 2010 are compared with the indicators of 2008. Grebennikov noted that 32 million people in Russia go online every day. "Two years ago, we called the figure of 10 million users per day. Today this figure is three times more, "said the deputy director of ROCIT. In addition, in Moscow 58% of the population use the Internet, in St. Petersburg one percent more - 59%. Also, more than half of the residents are Internet users in the Moscow and Murmansk regions, the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug and Yakutia. As Grebennikov noted, "the number of mobile Internet users is constantly growing." Of the 46.5 million people, 8% use a mobile phone to access the World Wide Web.

• According to the Public Opinion Foundation, in the fall of 2010, the share of Internet users among the adult population of the country amounted to 40% or 46 million people. At the same time, 32 million people can be attributed to the active part of the audience entering the Network at least once a day. Since the summer of 2010, the monthly audience has increased by 6.4%, and the daily audience - by 11.5%. Analysts associate a more significant increase in the daily Internet audience, including with an increase in user activity after the summer seasonal decline. In cities with a population of 100 thousand to 1 million inhabitants, the monthly Internet audience is, according to the bulletin, about 45%, and every sixth user lives in Moscow or St. Petersburg. At the same time, the largest growth of Internet users was recorded in small cities and villages. Since the summer of 2010, the Internet audience in cities with a population of less than 100 thousand people and in villages has grown by about 10%, and over the year by 28% and 31%, respectively. In major cities, the Internet audience is growing slowly. Over the year, the audience in Moscow grew by only 9%, and in St. Petersburg - by 18%, while in the northern capital the growth for the quarter was only 4%, and analysts predict stagnation in the near future. In large cities and cities with a population of one million, where the Internet penetration rate already exceeds the average for Russia, there is also a process of "aging" of the audience. Thus, the share of the monthly audience in Moscow and St. Petersburg among the age group of 45-54 years has reached and even slightly exceeded the share of users aged 25-34 years in Russia as a whole. The bulletin "Internet in Russia" is published by the Public Opinion Foundation four times a year and is based on the combined data of the Foundation's regular surveys conducted during each season.

• In 2010, more than a third of Russian households were connected to broadband access networks, service penetration amounted to 34%, and the number of subscribers reached 17.9 million (data from iKS-Consulting).

As noted, the consolidation processes in the Russian broadband Internet access market have led to the fact that the federal operators MTS and VimpelCom have significantly strengthened their positions in the segment.

According to iKS-Consulting, 62% of subscribers serve the top 10 operators, which is 2 percentage points more than in the previous quarter. This figure is expected to grow as consolidation processes develop in the market. The top ten largest operators in terms of the number of subscribers are as follows:

• MTS/Comstar (1,724,0 thousand subscribers),
• Centrtelecom (1,497,9 thousand),
• VimpelCom (1,421,0 thousand),
• Er-Telecom (1,363,9 thousand),
• Volgatelecom (1,093,0 thousand),
• Northwest Telecom (994.0 thousand),
• Uralsvyazinform (823.1 thousand),
• Sibirtelecom (757.8 thousand),
• Akado (707.5 thousand),
• UTK (677.8 thousand).

In Q4 2010, in addition to Comstar broadband access, Multiregion subscribers began to appear in the MTS group reports, due to which MTS/Comstar demonstrated the maximum increase in the subscriber base - 23.9%.

By the end of 2010, the number of Moscow broadband access subscribers exceeded 3 million. NKS, acquired by Rostelecom, was fixed on the fifth line of the rating of Moscow broadband access operators, showing a 6.5% increase in the subscriber base in the 4th quarter. Nat By Nat continues to buy house networks, in Moscow the company bought the operators Rizenap (Prov.Ru brand) and Knot-M (Zelkom brand).

MTS/Comstar's position in the Moscow market has weakened slightly, while MGTS broadband access network users have become 8.0% more, and MTS Home Internet services (formerly the Stream brand) have been used by 6.4% less subscribers.

Subscribers of fixed broadband access in Russia

• According to AC&M Consulting, the number of broadband Internet users in Russia at the end of the first half of 2010 amounted to 13.274 million. Thus, the increase in the subscriber base of the broadband access for six months amounted to 1.974 million users: at the beginning of 2010, the subscriber base was 11.3 million users. At the same time, May turned out to be the most successful in terms of subscriber base growth in Russia as a whole in the first half of the year, when the increase reached 398 thousand.

The size of the subscriber base of providers as of June 31, 2010:

• Comstar - 1.362 million.
• CenterTelecom - 1.334 million
• VimpelCom - 1.199 million
• Er-Telecom - 1.1006 million
• VolgaTelecom - 968 thousand
• North-West Telecom - 913.15 thousand.
• UralSvyazInform - 751.2 thousand
• SibirTelecom - 628.9 thousand
• UTK - 574 thousand

2009

In Russia, in April 2009, comScore counted 31.3 million web users. In terms of the number of unique Internet users, Russia became the fourth in Europe. The first place in terms of the size of the Internet audience is still occupied by Germany with an indicator of 40 million people. Next come Britain (36.8 million) and France (36.3 million).

Internet penetration in the first half of 2009 reached 44% (FOM). As for penetration, in Moscow and St. Petersburg it leaves 53% and 52%, respectively. Of all home connections, broadband access accounts for 88% in Moscow and 90% in St. Petersburg. High penetration in the North-West (Leningrad region, Karelia, Murmansk and Kaliningrad regions), in Chelyabinsk and Primorsky Territory. Among the lagging regions (penetration less than 21%) is almost the entire central part of Russia and Southeast Siberia.

• According to Yandex, Internet penetration in Russia in 2009 increased by more than 20% to 42.5 million people. The average transmission rate in 21 large cities of Russia (except for 2 capitals) increased in 2009 2.7 times to 1100 Kbps. At the same time, the average cost of Internet access in Russia has almost halved over the year.

Home Users Segment

According to J'son & Partners, the volume of the Russian Internet market in 2008 amounted to 36 billion rubles. or just over $1 billion.

It is estimated that the average fee for home Internet in the country as a whole is about 500 rubles. per month. At the same time, about 22% of home users pay for the Internet up to 300 rubles. per month, and every tenth - more than 800 rubles. In Russia as a whole, about 28% of the population over 18 uses the Internet at home. Recall that according to the latest FOM data, the six-month audience of the Internet is more than 40 million people. At the same time, more than half of Russians have never used the Internet at all.

J'son & Partners forecast for 2009 - 52 billion rubles, that is, about $1.7 billion.

1998

According to 1998 data, 1 million Russians had access to the Internet.

Mobile Internet

A separate article "Mobile broadband access Internet (Russian market)" is devoted to the topic of mobile Internet access on TAdviser.

Internet prices

2016: The cost of broadband access in Russia is several times lower than in Europe and the USA

The estimated cost of broadband and mobile Internet access in Russia is one of the lowest in comparison with Europe, the United States and many developed countries. RIA Novosti came to this conclusion by comparing broadband access tariffs with speeds of about 10 Mbps and the cost of 1 GB of mobile traffic in different countries^[30].

In Russia, the estimated cost of broadband access is 350 rubles per month. You will have to pay 120 rubles for a gigabyte of downloaded data on a mobile phone. Such prices are comparable only to Ukrainian prices, where the same gigabyte will cost 61 rubles. The publication calls the collapse of the ruble and hryvnia exchange rates the reason for such low prices. In most other countries, tariffs are several times higher.

Read more: Internet access (global market)

2012: RUR 26 per 1 MBit/s

In 2012, the speed of fixed broadband access To the Internet to significantly increased, and its price in terms of 1 Mbps decreased four times to 26 rubles. for 1 Mbps. (data Yandex as of April 2013). However, most users did not pay less for the Internet, just now for the same money subscribers get access at a higher speed (if, of course, they are concerned about the transition to new tariffs).

A significant part of users chooses tariffs for 500 - 600 rubles. per month. In the regions, among such tariffs, the speed of access to the Network increased 4.4 times to 22 Mbps. In Moscow, the speed doubled, and in St. Petersburg it tripled. The cheapest Internet (in terms of 1 Mbps) is in St. Petersburg, and the most expensive is in the Far East.

The availability of the Internet depends not only on the cost of access, but also on the level of income in the region. According to the accessibility index - that is, the ratio of the average salary and the cost of access - Moscow is in the lead. The Far East is still far behind - in 2013 the region took the last place. Spending on the Internet the same part of the salary as a Muscovite, a resident of the Far Eastern Federal District gets a speed 18 times lower.

2011: Price halved

Every year the speed of the Internet is growing, and the cost is decreasing. According to Yandex, in 2011 the average cost of the Internet in Russia more than halved. In the regions, the most common speed of access to the network (Internet access at such a speed is usually 500-600 rubles per month) increased to 6.4 Mbps (by 156%), and in capitals - to 16.5 Mbps (by 50%).

The Internet in the regions fell by an average of 60%. Most of all, residents of the Far Eastern District pay for access to the Network, least of all - the Central. The cost of the internet in these two counties varies by more than 10 times. Only about a third of organizations in the regions have their own sites (in Moscow and St. Petersburg - 70%). The highest figure is in the Volga region, the lowest - in the North-West district.

2010

In June 2010, ComNews Research conducted an initiative study to continue annual monitoring and price analysis of broadband Internet services. Due to the general growth of access speeds offered by providers, this year the analysis was carried out relative to the average unlimited tariff at a speed of 2 Mbps/c1. It is worth noting that for Moscow and St. Petersburg this tariff is minimally affordable, while for most Russian regions this is the maximum access speed in the tariff line.

Despite the general decline in the price of broadband Internet service, high-quality high-speed connection remains inaccessible to a significant part of the population. Research showed: in 12 of the 35 largest cities in Russia, the cost of unlimited Internet at a speed of 2 Mbps in relation to monthly expenses per capita exceeds 10%. At the same time, there is still a significant gap in the cost of services depending on the region of Russia - this is how residents of Khabarovsk pay 6 times more Muscovites for 2 Mbps.

Traditionally, the cheapest Internet in Russia is available to residents of Moscow - the average tariff for unlimited Internet access at a speed of 2 Mbps does not exceed 300 rubles. Taking into account monthly spending per capita statistics, this represents about 1.2% of average spending Muscovite. The Internet is paid more by residents of the far east - the average value of the considered the tariff for residents of Khabarovsk is 1783 rubles, which is the absolute maximum among the cities considered. The difference in tariffs for Internet access is due to the remoteness of the regions from the federal center and, accordingly, more expensive trunk traffic, and the low level of competition existing in regional markets. The ranking compiled by ComNews Research in 3-5 places is not the Far Eastern and Siberian cities, but the largest cities of the Southern Federal District. Thus, Astrakhan is in third place in terms of the cost of an unlimited tariff of 2 Mbps (1,588 rubles per month) and in first place in terms of the share of population expenses on the Internet - over 20% of total expenses.

Free reports

Provider shares in the broadband access market in Russia, May-June 2009