Mobile broadband access Internet Market of Russia

2023

The number of mobile Internet users in the Russian Federation since 2020 has grown by 16.4%

High-speed Internet is becoming more accessible in, and Russia the connections themselves are becoming faster. At the end of 2023 Internet , the number of mobile users in the Russian Federation reached 174.2 million, which is 16.4% more compared to 2020 (149.6 million). Such figures are given on July 29, 2024 in a review HSE Institute for Statistical Research and Knowledge Economics prepared on the basis of data from Ministry of Digital Development Russia and the Speedtest Global Index.

The report says that in the Russian Federation there is an increase in the number of mobile devices of all standards that are used to access the Internet: these are smartphones with 5G support, as well as devices only with LTE technology (4G generation) or GSM (push-button mobile phones). According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for 2023, Russia ranks 36th in the world in terms of the affordability of mobile Internet services. The ratio of costs for mobile Internet access services to gross national income per capita in Russia is two times lower than the average in the world - 0.4% versus 0.8%.

As of June 2024, the median download speed through mobile channels in Russia was 25.6 Mbps versus 56.4 Mbps globally. According to this indicator, the Russian Federation is on the 86th line in the global ranking. The strategy for the development of the Russian communications industry until 2035 sets a target for bringing the average mobile Internet speed to 60 Mbps by 2030 and to 125 Mbps by 2035. When performing this task, Russia will approach the indicators of China (135.7 Mbps) and the United States (113.1 Mbps).

The study also notes that intensive modernization of telecom infrastructure based on advanced equipment, including the deployment of 5G networks, will accelerate the growth rate of Internet access in Russia.^[1]

In Russia, the average speed of mobile Internet is decreasing

The average speed of mobile Internet in the regions of the Russian Federation by November 2023 decreased to 18.7 Mbps from 20 Mbps a year earlier. At the same time, in Moscow, the indicator, on the contrary, increased - from 51 to 63.2 Mbps. Izvestia wrote about this on November 10, 2023, citing expert data.

The first place in terms of the average speed of downloading data to a subscriber's device in Moscow was taken by MegaFon"" with an indicator of 94.1 Mbps. It is followed by MTS 59.7 Mbps. The data transfer rate for "" is Beeline 59 Mbps, for - Tele2 39.9 Mbps, the study says. The operators' places were also distributed according to the speed of return from the subscriber.

According to experts, the increase in speed in Moscow is due to the fact that the main investment flows of operators are sent to the capital. Fast and high-quality Internet access in Moscow is "in many ways a necessity," the source told the newspaper. Regions are often supplied with equipment that has become scarce due to sanctions, according to the residual principle. Specialists are trying to maintain the quality of communication in the regions by expanding the range due to 4G frequencies, originally intended for other communication technologies, the source added.

The Ministry of Digital Development, in turn, told Izvestia that the speed of mobile Internet in Russia is at a stable level. The department agreed that the speed of mobile Internet in Moscow is growing faster than in other Russian regions. This trend is explained by the fact that Moscow is the main market for the largest operators, according to the ministry.

In the future, problems with equipment and, therefore, with the speed of the mobile Internet could solve import substitution, first of all, of base stations, says Konstantin Ankilov, general director of TMT Consulting. The state and business are working in this direction, but it is too early to say that domestic base stations will soon appear on the market in an amount sufficient to fully cover the needs of operators, he believes.^[2]

Russian mobile operators obliged to cancel the fee for the distribution of the Internet

On September 18, 2023, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) issued warnings to the "big four" mobile operators. MTS, MegaFon, Beeline and Tele2 are required to cancel the fee for distributing Internet traffic from mobile devices.

As of September 18, 2023, the cost of distributing the Internet from these companies is about 100 rubles a month. At the same time, the antimonopoly service receives a large number of requests from subscribers who complain about such practices of telecommunications companies.

In August 2023, the FAS sent requests to the Big Four in order to establish all the circumstances and details. At the same time, the company was not provided with sufficient economic, technological or other justification for the service. The agency established that the actions of cellular operators contain signs of violation of antitrust laws. We are talking about a violation of clause 3 of part 1 of article 10 of the law on protection of competition (imposing on the counterparty the terms of the contract that are unprofitable for him or not related to the subject of the contract).

The FAS issued warnings to MTS, MegaFon, Beeline and Tele2 about the cessation of such actions. Operators must fulfill it within a month by canceling the fee for distributing the Internet from mobile devices and preventing restrictions on the corresponding functionality for subscribers. In case of failure to comply with the requirements, the department may initiate cases of violation of antitrust laws.

As noted by the general director of Telecom Daily Denis Kuskov, the distribution of traffic from devices may be of interest to about 15 million Russian subscribers (6%). In his opinion, in response to the requirements of the FAS, operators will leave technological restrictions for subscribers: users will not be able to distribute the Internet after spending, for example, more than 30 GB - companies will artificially begin to "cut the speed," and in order to continue using the service, you will have to replenish the balance.^[3]

Mobile Internet speed in Russia increased by 12%

The speed of mobile Internet in Russia in the first half of 2023 increased despite the departure of foreign manufacturers of telecom equipment from the Russian Federation. Kommersant writes about this on July 12, 2023.

By this day, as the newspaper was told in MegaFon, the operator's mobile Internet speed increased by 12% compared to a year ago - to 29.34 Mbps. VimpelCom speaks of an increase in the data transfer rate in the LTE network "over the past year" by 10%. In MTS, the average value of the speed of mobile data transmission in Russia "demonstrates a slight increase." Tele2 has the speed of LTE-based mobile Internet in the first half of 2023 remained unchanged in the Russian Federation as a whole, but in the Moscow region it increased by 4%.

Operators noted that the increase in throughput was achieved through the so-called frequency reframing. This procedure refers to reconfiguring base stations that used to operate in the 3G band into the 4G band. MegaFon said that during the specified period, refarming was carried out in 24 regions of Russia. MTS reported on the refarming of 62% of base stations in Moscow.

Experts interviewed by the publication believe that refarming made it possible to improve communication only for a while. Without connecting new equipment, the acute shortage of which is felt in Russia due to sanctions, operators will quickly fall into the ceiling and the speed of the network will begin to decline.

There is simply nothing to develop networks further, "says Alexei Slukin, editor of the Telekommunalka Telegram channel.

MegaFon also does not deny the problem and says that without additional frequencies - especially in the 700 MHz range - the quality of communication may decrease in the next two to three years. These frequencies continue to be extended to broadcasters and plan to give them access until August 2025.^[4]

Russian authorities gave a chance to forgotten Chinese communication technology

The State Commission on Radio Frequencies (GKRCH) decided to allocate frequencies in the 1790-1800 MHz band to an indefinite circle of people to create mobile broadband networks (MSHPD). This is stated in the minutes of the last meeting of the SCRC, published by the Ministry of Digital Development. This became known on February 2, 2023.

It follows from the decision of the State Radio Broadcasting Commission that now willing telecom operators can apply for frequencies in the 1790-1800 MHz band. This gives a chance to launch networks using Chinese NG-1 technology (another name is McWILL). At the same time, the strip itself was halved.

At the same time, GKRCH introduced a number of restrictions for MCH networks in this range: they should not require protection from interference and interfere with existing and planned communication networks of state authorities, technological communication networks on railway transport in the range of 1785-1805 MHz and networks of telecom operators of GSM (second generation of cellular communication) and LTE standards in the bands 1710-1785 MHz and 1805-1800 MHz.

Assignment of frequencies for avionics in the range of 1790-1800 MHz can be carried out subject to territorial separation from railway networks. Distance of RES MSFD from RES LTE of railway networks should be 15-45 km depending on technical characteristics of the latter.

For territorial communication with RES of cellular operators in the ranges 1710-1785 MHz and 1805-1880 MHz, the distance should be at least 30 km. At the same time, if the cellular operator wants to set its RES in these ranges, which will be located at a distance of less than 30 km to the current RES of the MSD, then the owner of the RES of the MSD will have to stop its operation within 15 days from the moment of receipt of notification from Roskomnadzor.

Also, the MSHpD networks should promptly disconnect their RES at the request of the Federal Security Service (FSO) and not interfere with meteorological radio relay communication lines of temperature and wave sensing in the 1774-1790 MHz frequency band. And from January 1, 2026, the MSHPD networks should switch to the use of electronic means included in the register of electronic equipment^[5] authorities^[6]

2022

Prices for mobile Internet in Russia continue to be one of the lowest in the world

Neither inflation nor the departure of the main suppliers of infrastructure equipment could significantly affect this circumstance.

How Russian communication prices relate to the prices of foreign operators is stated in a detailed study by Forbes (January 2023). The publication compared 104 countries for such an indicator as the cost per Internet month. The most expensive mobile Internet is, and UAE Russia occupies one of the last places - 102.

For many years, the constant connection of new subscribers allowed operators to reduce tariffs or keep them at the same level, but now the vast majority of almost all regions already use the services of cellular operators. Over the past few years, the ratio of the size of the subscription fee for a cellular service package to the average per capita income of the population has remained at the same level. At the end of the third quarter of 2022, this ratio is even slightly lower than at the beginning of 2018 - 0.97% versus 0.98%.

Mobile Internet LTE in Russia accelerated to almost 5G speed

On March 15, 2022, MegaFon announced an increase in the speed of mobile Internet to a level that almost corresponds to 5G networks. To do this, the telecom operator proposed the Pre-5G option. It is included in the three maximum tariff plans: "Maximum," VIP and "Premium." Owners of other tariffs will be able to connect the option for 399 rubles a month. Read more here.

2021

The most sociable regions of Russia have been identified

On January 26, 2022, Yota shared an analysis of the number and duration of phone calls of its users, as well as the amount of mobile traffic used for 2021 in different regions of the country. Thus, the mobile operator identified the most "calling" and "rocking" regions.

The top 10 in terms of call duration in minutes included:

1. Moscow and the Moscow region - 138 billion.
2. St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region - 59.5 billion
3. Republic of Bashkortostan - 47.5 billion
4. Trans-Baikal Territory - 40.6 billion
5. Novosibirsk region - 35.3 billion.
6. Krasnodar Territory - 29.2 billion
7. Astrakhan region - 29 billion.
8. Chelyabinsk region - 28.2 billion.
9. Republic of Tatarstan - 28.1 billion
10. Khabarovsk Territory - 25.2 billion

The same regions, however, in a different sequence, entered the top ten in terms of the number of calls. This means that in some regions they call more often, but they say less. The first five remained unchanged, but the Krasnodar Territory, Astrakhan and Chelyabinsk regions lost ground. The Republic of Tatarstan and the Khabarovsk Territory rose in the top - there is a larger number of calls, and the average duration of the conversation is shorter.

In addition to the top ten most "calling" regions, the analysis includes Yota users from other, less active regions of Russia. At the end of the list in terms of the number of calls were: the Republic of Adygea, the Magadan Region, the Republic of Altai and Ingushetia and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.

In some regions, there were almost identical indicators for the number of calls, despite differences in population size. For example, the Sakhalin region and the Chuvash Republic: the discrepancy between them was only 0.02%. However, in terms of the duration of calls, Sakhalin residents bypassed the Chuvash by 3%. This despite the fact that the population of the Chuvash Republic is 2.5 times higher than the number of residents of the Sakhalin Region. The difference in the number of calls of the leader of the top and the region completing the list turned out to be extremely significant: in Moscow and the Moscow region they call 2,000 times more than in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug - 1.2 billion calls against 600 thousand.

The top 10 in terms of the volume of mobile traffic used included the same regions, only the Chelyabinsk region was replaced by Sverdlovsk. The championship in indicators is also held by Moscow and MO, St. Petersburg and LO and the Republic of Bashkortostan: 263 million, 94 million and 51 million gigabytes, respectively. At the same time, the Trans-Baikal Territory from the fourth place in terms of the number and duration of calls dropped to the tenth place in terms of the volume of traffic used. Transbaikalia residents still prefer classic calls to social networks and instant messengers.

It was obvious that in the first and second places on calls and Internet traffic would be the capitals: Moscow and the Moscow region and St. Petersburg and LO. Interestingly, in all three tops, the third place was held by the Republic of Bashkortostan. In general, in 2021, the consumption of voice traffic decreased by 5% compared to 2020, communication is increasingly flowing into instant messengers and social networks. Against this background, the statistics of the Trans-Baikal Territory look even more surprising, which moved from fourth place in terms of calls to tenth place in terms of Internet traffic consumption. It's nice that somewhere people still prefer 'live' communication, - shared Irina Pyuskulyan, Marketing Director of Yota.

Mobile operators in Russia canceled unlimited Internet

At the end of November 2021, it became known about the refusal of Russian mobile operators to connect new subscribers to unlimited Internet. Existing customers of cellular companies will still be able to continue to use tariffs, which provide an unlimited amount of web traffic.

First of all, we proceed from the needs of customers, and the demand for unlimited has not been observed lately. Such tariffs have always been a niche product, interesting only to a narrow audience, - explained in Tele2.

MegaFon expressed confidence that the conditions of the new tariffs cover the needs of subscribers, and they will not have to constantly pay for unlimited traffic.

VimpelCom recommended that those wishing to get unlimited Internet use the options intended for modems and routers.

According to the leading analyst of Mobile Research Group Eldar Murtazin, in the future this restriction will affect subscribers of archival tariffs. The expert cites data according to which 80% of subscribers spend about 12 GB of mobile traffic per month, another 10% - up to 20 GB, and only 2% of subscribers spend over 100 GB of mobile traffic.

According to Murtazin, there are assumptions that the restrictions on mobile Internet are related to the Yarovaya law - operators allegedly want to reduce traffic in order to reduce the amount of information stored.

Logic is limping here, since by removing unlimited traffic, we will not reduce the consumption of the service at all. Having raised the cost for mobile Internet, players will simply push to use broadband access, since the alternative to mobile Internet has not disappeared anywhere. And this traffic will still have to be stored within the framework of the Spring Law. The changes that occur with the categories of information storage are such that in 2022 the storage volume will decrease sharply, the expert wrote.[7]

The average speed of mobile Internet in the Russian Federation for the year decreased by almost 3 MB/s

IAA TelecomDaily on November 17, 2021 reported that it recorded a slight decrease in the average speed of mobile data transmission in LTE networks - since their launch in Russia in 2011-2012. So, in November 2020, according to the agency, the average speed of mobile Internet in the big four networks (MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom, Tele2) was 24.3 MB/s, in November 2021 this figure decreased to 21.7 MB/s.

Thanks to its Megabitus application, TelecomDaily has the opportunity to assess the quality of Internet access service on an all-Russian scale for the second year in a row. As in 2020, MegaFon's mobile Internet turned out to be the fastest among the four operators (the average speed throughout the Russian Federation is 33.7 Mb/s). In terms of average and maximum data transfer rates, the company is still ahead of the other three networks by 60% or more.

Nevertheless, experts record the beginning of the process of stagnation of speeds due to the fact that the development and modernization do not keep up with the growth of traffic and an increase in the load on the networks. The volume of traffic in mobile networks over the year (from the second quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2021) increased by 30%, over two years - by more than 110%. It was during this period that the "four" launched LTE-A networks, but further technological growth in speeds will no longer follow until the introduction of 5G, which will not happen on the mass market in the next few years, TelecomDaily is sure. However, the current speeds are more than enough to view UHD content.

In 2020, the agency expanded the special project "Communication Quality" to include data from its application for measuring Internet speed on the Megabitus user's device. This allows you to receive information from hundreds of cities simultaneously in real time and create not only annual reports, but also reports with a different frequency - monthly, quarterly, etc.

TelecomDaily does not abandon local measurements by its experts on certified equipment for detailed assessment of communication quality in a particular region, including problem areas and zones with uneven coverage.

With the help of Megabitus, TelecomDaily can determine the average speed level in Russia, as well as in large cities, where the majority of application users live in November 2021. This applies not only to the speed of mobile data transmission, but also to fixed networks. As the popularity of Megabitus grows, the geography of measurements will cover new cities, including small ones.

The results of this study include impersonal data obtained during October 2021 in more than 30 largest cities of the Russian Federation based on tens of thousands of measurements. The same subscriber could run Megabitus on the phone while at home, in the office, in the store, in the country.

The assessment took place by the achieved data transfer rate (maximum, minimum, average), as well as by other parameters described by GOST (success rate of system inputs, failure rate, etc.).

The speed for more than 20 cellular networks was recorded, however, indicators are given only for the largest of them: MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom (Beeline brand), Tele2.

The average data transfer rate among operators was as follows: MegaFon showed a speed of 33.7 Mb/s, MTS - 19.6 Mb/s. VimpelCom came close to it, which received a level of 19.0 Mb/s. Tele2 - 14.6 Mb/s.

Thus, the four largest mobile networks in the country provide an average speed of 21.7 Mb/s, which is almost 3 Mbps (24.3 Mb/s) less compared to 2020.

We see that the rapid growth in speeds that networks have shown over the past decade is replaced by downward dynamics. So far, this does not pose a threat to the comfort of subscribers, since these resources are more than enough to work even with the most "difficult" services. However, for the development of cellular communications in the Russian Federation, this is an alarming signal. Operator companies are faced with numerous inhibitory factors, which include additional restrictions on the part of the regulator, and an objectively difficult economic situation. Under these conditions, the prospects for the deployment of 5G look vague, since further optimization of LTE networks has its own boundaries, - comments on the results of the study, TelecomDaily CEO Denis Kuskov.

2020

Russia in second place in the world in terms of the availability of mobile traffic - 1 GB for 24.6 rubles

At the end of 2020, Russia among the largest countries is in second place in terms of the availability of mobile traffic. 1 GB of data cost the subscriber 24.6 rubles. The lowest figure was registered in India - 9.2 rubles, Indonesia entered the top three (28.2 rubles), according to Content-Review data.

Tariffs denominated in national currencies were translated in ruble equivalent at the Central Bank rates at the beginning of 2021, the researchers explained.

In the index for 2019, Russia ranked 6th in a similar rating - the cost of a gigabyte was lower in Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Egypt and Indonesia, Vedomosti reminds.

Experts attribute the low prices of Russian operators to the fact that subscribers are transferred to tariffs with a large package of traffic, while services are becoming more expensive slowly.

The consistent rejection of unlimited tariffs as the basis for the sale of new contracts and the connection of new subscribers led to the fact that the cost of mobile Internet in terms of 1 GB in Russia decreased by one and a half times. At the same time, tariffs with unlimited Internet, even taking into account a rise in price by 38%, have become the cheapest in the world, Sergey Polovnikov, head of Content Review, told RIA Novosti.

According to him, even taking into account the volatility of the exchange rate of world currencies, the rise in price of mobile tariffs and especially tariffs with unlimited Internet has become a global trend that will remain with us for at least the entire post-coronavirus period.

According to the study, the average cost of a tariff with unlimited Internet in the world at the end of 2020 amounted to 4405.1 rubles, in Russia - 830 rubles (3181.8 and 602.5 rubles at the end of 2019, respectively).

Analysts note that tariffs with unlimited Internet access in most countries have moved to the premium segment, which is primarily due to the need to monetize the launch of 5G networks.^[8][9]

Russia entered the top ten countries on the cheapness of mobile Internet

Russia entered the top ten countries on the cheapness of mobile Internet. This is evidenced by the data released at the end of July 2020 by the analytical company Content Review.

The cost of 1 GB of mobile Internet in Russia is estimated at 31.6 rubles. This is the sixth indicator in the world. The cheapest gigabyte is in India (7.8 rubles), Israel (26.7 rubles) and Indonesia (28.8 rubles).

The leader among the countries with the cheapest mobile Internet was Kazakhstan: the tariff there will cost 729 rubles. The second line is occupied by Poland (842 rubles), and the third place went to Russia (887 rubles).

2019

The number of mobile broadband access subscribers increased by 12% to 96.4 per 100 people of the population

The large-scale transition Russians remote work to caused a sharp increase in the volume of transmitted. information The Institute for Statistical Research economies and Knowledge HSE has studied to data assess the degree of readiness of the national infrastructure telecommunications for increased loads. This was announced on May 14, 2020 by the Higher School of Economics.

According to statistics, Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of russia the consumption since Internet traffic 2010 has increased annually in both fixed and mobile networks. At the same time, in 2019 alone, the volume information transferred using fixed access to to the Internet increased by 20.3% compared to the previous year, reaching 45.9 exabytes; The same indicator for mobile communications increased even more (15.3 exabytes) - by 51.1% (Chart 1). The average annual growth rate of Internet traffic in fixed-line networks for 2011-2019 amounted to 23.3%, mobile - 67.6%.

The growth of Internet traffic correlates primarily with the development of communication networks, the improvement of mobile devices, as well as with a steady increase in the number of broadband access (broadband broadband) subscribers to the Internet.

Thus, the number of mobile broadband access subscribers in 2019 increased by 12% compared to 2018 - to 96.4 per 100 people. population, fixed - by 2% - up to 22.3 units. (Fig. 2). The average annual growth rate for 2012-2019 is 8.4 and 4.8%, respectively.

The positive dynamics of the development of fixed broadband access is accompanied by an increase in the share of subscribers with high connection speed. Only a fifth of subscribers still go online at less than 10 Mbps. Almost half (45.2%) use the Internet at a speed of 10-100 Mbps, and a third (33.7%) have already switched to the range of 100 Mbps - 1 Gbps (Fig. 3).

The reliability of the data network depends on the connection technology. One of the fixed broadband access technologies providing the largest communication channel bandwidth is FTTH/FTTB optical fiber (FTTx). In Russia, almost 80% of subscribers are connected to these communication networks, the average annual increase is at the level of 3.7%. The share of subscribers using other communication technologies is constantly decreasing, and according to the results of 2019, 13% used xDSL, 1.2% - cable modem, 6.2% - other wired technologies (Chart 3).

The population and business are increasingly using mobile networks to access the Internet. According to the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of Russia, in 2019 the number of mobile subscribers increased by 7.1% compared to 2018 and amounted to 309.6 million units, of which 219.5 million units support the standard/ GSM IMT-2000/UMTS/LTE and only 27 million units - the LTE standard (Chart 4). The fourth generation LTE networks have increased stability and provide widespread access to high-speed Internet (more than 10 Mbps). In Russia, the share of subscriber devices connected according to the LTE standard is small - only 8.7%. The standard corresponding to the third generation of mobile communications (3G) is more common (70.9%).

In general, the telecommunications infrastructure of Russia is ready for uninterrupted operation with multiple increased loads caused by the transition of part of the population to a remote mode of operation. Most subscribers have the opportunity to use the "fast" Internet using reliable communication technologies that provide widespread access to the network. At the same time, attention should be paid to the rather low proportion of mobile access devices connected using the fourth generation communication technology. Access to LTE mobile infrastructure will provide the population with more reliable communication in the face of a sharp increase in Internet traffic and provide organizations with additional power to transform business processes.

Russia has the cheapest unlimited Internet among developed countries

Content Review, an information and analytical agency, published in June 2019 the results of a study of tariffs for mobile Internet services in 50 countries around the world. In the course of the study, tariff offers of 136 telecom operators were analyzed and the cost of one gigabyte in Russian rubles was calculated. For the first time, the cost of tariffs with unlimited mobile Internet was also recorded. The cheapest unlimited mobile Internet in Russia, in the rating of the cost of 1 Gb, Russia took 4th place, improving its performance compared to 2018.

Highlights:

• the average world cost of 1 gigabyte of mobile Internet amounted to 195.5 rubles, in Russia - 37.9 rubles (269.3 and 55.5 rubles in December 2018, respectively)
• the average world cost of a tariff with unlimited mobile Internet amounted to 2791.8 rubles per month
• Russia ranked first in the ranking of countries with the cheapest unlimited Internet (see graph# 1), the corresponding tariffs are present in 26 out of 50 countries considered during the study
• Russia entered the top five countries with the cheapest mobile internet, moving to 4th place (see graph# 2)
• the cost of a gigabyte is influenced by the following factors:

• • increase of mobile traffic packets with simultaneous reduction of their cost
  • introduction of unlimited tariffs
  • volatility of national currencies
  • competition in the market
  • country size
  • 5G availability

To calculate the cost of a gigabyte, tariffs and options with enabled traffic with a benchmark of 10 gigabytes were taken. In each of the countries, tariffs of up to four largest operators were considered, the final calculations used the average value of the cost of a gigabyte, translated into rubles at the exchange rate as CENTRAL BANK OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION of June 24, 2019. The list of countries has not changed since 2016, when the first study was released, and reflects the top countries in size. GDP The exception is, Venezuela which, due to the prolonged financial crisis at the end of 2019, was replaced. Romania

"Operators around the world have noticeably divided tariffs into three groups: for the older generation with a package of up to 6-7 gigabytes, for young people with a package of 15-20 gigabytes and for hyper-connected subscribers with unlimited Internet. Operators began to launch tariffs with unlimited Internet, but only in a few countries they can be called affordable, Russia is the leader among developed countries in the availability of unlimited tariffs. It is noteworthy that the launch of 5G pushes operators to launch unlimited tariffs, but with a high subscription fee, "explains Sergey Polovnikov, head of Content Review and author of the study.

In 2019, unlimited tariffs appeared in half of the countries participating in the study. At the same time, "unlimited" is limited more often in terms of access speed and quality of streaming services than in terms of the amount of traffic available at maximum speed. Distribution of the Internet at tariffs with unlimited traffic is almost everywhere limited and is provided for an additional fee.

In Russia, tariffs with unlimited Internet were returned to the market in 2018. Today, for new subscribers, the most favorable tariff is offered Beeline by "," for those who connect SIM card with the Anlim tariff, there is a preferential price of 300 rubles per month. MTS offers new subscribers a 10% discount. The operator "" MegaFon does not allocate a tariff with unlimited Internet, connecting this service is optional, the cost and conditions depend on the subscriber's tariff plan. The operator does not Tele2 offer discounts on connecting the Bezlimit tariff.

In most countries of the world considered in the study, operators offer subscribers options that cancel the charging of traffic for a number of applications (social media, video, etc.). The division into "day" and "night" traffic is a thing of the past, but it is present in Asian countries. In a number of countries, operator sites already offer 5G services, but their cost is often higher than in LTE/3G.

Russia entered the top twenty countries with the cheapest mobile Internet

Russia with an average cost of 1 GB of mobile traffic of $0.91 was on the 12th line of the rating of countries with the cheapest mobile Internet in the world, RBC reported in March 2019, citing data from a British research company Cable.co.uk. According to the results of the study, the cheapest mobile Internet is in India, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In India, 1 GB of Internet costs users $0.26, in Kyrgyzstan - $0.27, and in Kazakhstan - $0.49^[10].

The top ten countries with the most affordable mobile Internet also include: Ukraine, Rwanda, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the same time, the researchers Cable.co.uk noted that mobile Internet in the CIS countries is mainly cheap. Among the countries with high prices, only Turkmenistan was included, where 1 GB costs an average of $19.81.

The most expensive mobile Internet was in Zimbabwe, where 1 GB costs $75.2. In addition, high Internet prices were recorded in Equatorial Guinea, St. Helena, Falkland and Bermuda, Djibouti, Greece, Samoa, Tokelau and Nauru.

2018

32 million Russians use the Internet only on mobile devices

According to the All-Russian Omnibus GfK, 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%.

At the same time, an important qualitative shift in recent times - the rapid growth of the audience of mobile only users - of 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. Read more here.

Russia - in 8th place in the list of countries with the cheapest Internet

On December 26, 2018, the Content Review Information and Analytical Agency published the results of a study of mobile service tariffs Internet in 50 countries. The study analyzed the tariff offers of 136 telecom operators and calculated the cost of one gigabyte in. the Russian rubles The cheapest mobile Internet in Russia is Romania the 8th. More. here

Comparison of mobile internet speeds

In March 2018, the previous edition of the Speedtest Global Index, the ranking of the speed of connection to the Internet to the world, was published, which is compiled based on the results of measurements of the service Speedtest.net. In February, the list Russia was in 77th place in the mobile segment, Internet dropping one position compared to the previous edition of the rating.

In our country, mobile data transmission is carried out at a speed of about 16.53 Mbps, which is less than, for example, in Nicaragua (16.78 Mbps), Bahrain (16.9 Mbps), Honduras (20.31 Mbps) and Myanmar (22.68 Mbps). In the United States, the speed is about 27.39 Mbps.

The fastest mobile internet remains in Norway, where speeds exceed 62 Mbps. Iceland rose to second place from fourth with an indicator of 58.44 Mbps. Holland (54.53 Mbps) entered the top three. The average download speed for cellular networks in the world is 22.16 Mbps.

The study also shows the balance of power of countries with the fastest wired Internet. There has long been no equal to Singapore, where locals go online at a speed of about 161.53 Mbps. In Iceland and Hong Kong, which took second and third places, respectively, we are talking about 157.73 and 129.64 Mbps.

In the list of states with the fastest fixed Internet access, Russia in February 2018 slipped down one position, taking 43rd place. The average speed of wired Internet in the Russian Federation is estimated at 38.25 Mbps. According to this indicator, Russia is inferior to the Republic of Trinidad  and Tobago (39.59 Mbps), Moldova (43.52 Mbps), Barbados (49.73 Mbps) and Macau (87.9 Mbps).

The authors of the rating are counting based on data coming from more than 7 thousand servers around the world. How many of them are in Russia is not specified.^[11]

2017

The number of mobile users has reached 121 million people

February 20, 2019 Cisco announced the results of the report "Visual index of network technology development: global forecast for mobile and fixed traffic for the period 2017-2022." According to data to the report, the popularity of mobile is Internet growing both in and in the Russia world. This is due to the expansion of the coverage area and the improvement of the quality of mobile communications, as well as the spread of various -. IoTappendix

In Russia, by 2022, the number of mobile users will be 124 million people, or 87% of the country's total population. For comparison, in 2017 there were 121 million of them. The number of mobile users in the world by 2022 will reach 5.5 billion (in 2017 - 5 billion), which will amount to 71% of the total population of the Earth.

According to a report published by Cisco, by 2022 the average annual growth rate of mobile traffic in Russia will be 43% and 2.2 times higher than the growth rate of fixed IP traffic (19.9%). By 2022, mobile data traffic in Russia will reach 43.9 exabytes and thereby more than 6 times higher than in 2017 (7.3 exabytes). Average mobile traffic per user in Russia will reach 29 GB per month (5 GB in 2017). At the same time, it is expected that the annual volume of global mobile traffic by 2022 may reach the zettabyte mark. This is almost 113 times the total global mobile traffic generated in 2012.

author '= Andrey Kuzmich, Cisco Technology Director for Russia and CIS ' Cisco is working hard to help carriers meet the growing demand for mobile data from private consumers, business users, and a variety of IoT applications. World mobile traffic is entering the zettabyte era, and Russian traffic is growing steadily. We believe that technology 5G Wi-Fi will complement each other at the access level, but in order to infrastructure cope with growing demands, a completely different approach to building networks is needed.

The latest generation of network architectures are already available to our customers: functioning on the basis of Intent-Based Networks, capable of automatically preventing cyber threats, as well as constantly self-learning and improving. "

Russia: Key Forecasts

• Mobile data traffic in Russia for the period 2017-2022. will grow six times, with an average annual growth rate of 43%.
• By 2022, mobile data traffic in Russia will reach 3.7 exabytes per month, which is equivalent to 914 million DVDs (in 2017, this figure was 611 petabytes per month).
• By 2022, mobile data traffic in Russia will reach 43.9 exabytes (2017 - 7.3 exabytes).
• From 2017 to 2022, the average annual growth rate of mobile data traffic in Russia will be 43%, which is 2.2 times more than the average annual growth rate of fixed IP traffic (19.9%).
• In 2017, mobile data traffic in Russia accounted for 16% of total IP traffic (fixed + mobile), by 2022 this figure will grow to 32%.
• By 2022, Russian mobile networks will pass traffic every 2 hours equivalent to the total volume in gigabytes of all films ever produced
• By 2022, mobile traffic in Russia per device connected to the network will reach an average of 14.9 GB per month (2017 figure - 2.6 GB).
• By 2022, mobile traffic in Russia per mobile connection, including machine-to-machine connections and LPWA, will reach 9.2 GB per month (2017 figure - 2.2 GB).
• By 2022, mobile traffic in Russia per user will reach 29 GB per month (2017 figure - 5.0 GB).
• The average annual growth rate of mobile users in Russia will be 0.6%.

World: Key predictions

• By 2022, the number of devices and IoT connections ready to work in mobile networks will exceed 12 billion (2017 figure - about 9 billion).
• By 2022, mobile networks will support more than 8 billion personal mobile devices and 4 billion IoT connections.
• The transmission speed in mobile networks will increase by an average of more than three times, from 8.7 Mbps in 2017 to 28.5 Mbps in 2022.
• By 2022, mobile traffic will account for almost 20% of global IP traffic with an annual volume of 930 exabytes.

Share of 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and LPWA connections

• In 2017, low-power wide-range networks (Low-Power, Wide-area, LPWA) supported 1.5% of mobile devices and machine-to-machine (M2M ) connections, 2G networks - 34%, 3G - 30%, 4G - 35% of the global fleet of mobile devices and M2M connections.
• By 2022, LPWA networks will support 14% of mobile devices and M2M connections, 2G networks - 8%, 3G - 20%, 4G - 54%, 5G - 3% of the global fleet of mobile devices and M2M- connections (about 422 million 5G connections in the world).

5G

• By 2022, 5G connections will account for more than 3% of all mobile connections (more than 422 million 5G devices and M2M connections) and almost 12% of global mobile data traffic.
• By 2022, one 5G connection on average will generate three times more traffic (22 GB/month) than a 4G connection (8 GB/month).

EY study

• The penetration of smartphones exceeds 130%, there is an active growth of connected devices: cars, routers, household devices, watches (including children's) with the ability to transfer data.
• The bulk of wireless access falls on Wi-Fi, but due to the complex process of identification, excessive advertising and the quality of Wi-Fi networks, there is an outflow of use in the network of mobile operators.
• Mobile operators are trying to attract subscribers through advertising and new services. But most subscribers from operators need unlimited traffic and personal data protection. Since personal experience is the most important for subscribers, operators should concentrate on analytics and customer experience to increase subscriber loyalty.
• Operators can offer the "feeling of unlimited internet" to most users: 70% spend less than the allocated data quota. Based on world experience, the introduction of unlimited tariffs allowed the first operators to significantly increase market share while maintaining control over network loading: transmission of part of traffic over Wi-Fi networks, separate payment for guaranteed QoS (Quality of Service - guarantee of quality of services (communication), optimization of streaming video.
• The flow of voice to messengers is accelerating, operators are losing revenues, statistics and the ability to optimize encrypted traffic. Partnership with OTT (Over-the-top services) allows you to both optimize traffic and increase subscriber loyalty.
• The partnership between mobile operators and Wi-Fi operators to offload mobile networks will allow Wi-Fi operators to save revenues, and subscribers to get rid of additional identification and excessive advertising.
• Factors that may affect the development of mobile broadband access in the next three years: the Moscow renovation program, the introduction of NDD rules in residential buildings, the growth of connected cars, the growth of certain groups of IoT devices for children and the elderly, the growth of security systems with autonomous communication.
• A survey of 1,500 respondents who use mobile Internet using at least one device (usually a smartphone). Mobile users who do not use mobile Internet did not participate in the survey.
• Geography of respondents: 30% live in Moscow, the rest in cities with a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants. Survey time: February 2018.
• Survey of 900 drivers or owners of cars with communication devices. The geography of respondents is residents of Russian cities with a population of more than 1 million. Survey time: July 2017.

Passenger AM: More than 40% of passenger AMs already have a telematics device in addition to a smartphone and system ERA GLONASS emergency alert. 12% of vehicles are equipped with two or more devices. The most popular devices are GSM signaling, adapters and a standard on-board system

Freight and passenger transport of the Russian Federation. In terms of the number of connections, freight transport is in first place in the world, penetration is approaching 100%. A minimum of three devices are installed as required by law in addition to fleet monitoring systems, cargo monitoring and traditional CB radio stations.

Factors that will determine the development of mobile broadband access

• 5G will not have a significant impact until at least 2020: there are no subscriber devices or data networks themselves.
• IoT will provide growth in connectivity, but most will be low APRU and require substantial platform and security investment.
• Connected cars (AM) and transport telematics will create a large amount of data (terabytes per hour), most of which will be used inside AM without transmission over communication networks, traffic growth is small. An increase in the use of streaming video on board AM can lead to an increase in volumes.
• New rules of non-discriminatory access (NDD) to residential buildings (changes in SNiP) will lead to increased competition and lower prices for fixed communications, and an increase in home access points.
• Renovation of Moscow: the need to choose an operator when moving may lead to an increase in the use of mobile Internet before connecting a new apartment to a fixed network. With sufficient speed and tariffs with a large amount of data (unlimited), some subscribers can continue to use mobile networks for home Internet on an ongoing basis.

Mobile Internet in Moscow is one of the most affordable among major cities in the world

Analysts of the Department of Information Technologies of Moscow (DIT) compared the cost of mobile Internet in Moscow and large foreign cities in 1 - 3 square meters. 2017. The subject of the study was 3 types of tariffs for mobile data transmission (not including voice, SMS and other communication services): "minimum data package" (up to 4 GB, inclusive), "average" (5-12 GB) and "maximum" (13 GB or more) in Moscow, Barcelona, ​ ​ London, Stockholm, New York, Singapore and Dubai.

Main article: Moscow - Smart City

Deloitte data

Russian Internet users prefer fixed broadband Internet access (broadband access) to mobile, the share of those who use only mobile Internet at home was 16%, the Kommersant newspaper reports, citing a study by Deloitte.

The survey in Russia was conducted in August-October 2017. In rural areas, the share of mobile Internet users turned out to be higher than in cities - 22% and 14%, respectively. People with low incomes use mobile Internet more often - 20%, those whose incomes are quite high, only 12%. It is also interesting that single people (18%) are more likely to use mobile Internet than family people (15%).

It is worth noting that in 2018, North America according to the researchers' forecast, 20% of households will use only mobile Internet. Brazil This figure will increase to almost a third of all households. At the same time, in some countries European Union , the share of users who prefer mobile Internet was only 10%.

Deloitte predicts that by 2022, up to 30-40% of Internet users in the world will access the Internet using a mixture of cellular and fixed wireless technologies FWA (Fixed Wireless Access). In 2013, this figure was only 10%. Researchers expect the quality of wireless connections to improve significantly with the launch of the 5G communication standard.

Ericsson forecast for 2021

According to Ericsson, by the end of 2017, 258.4 million SIM cards will be used in Russia, and the cellular penetration rate will be 182%. Over the next 6 years, the increase in SIM-cards will be insignificant, and by 2022 their total number will be 259.6 million with a penetration rate of 183%. At the same time, by the end of 2017, 129.2 million people (91%) will use cellular communications, and by 2022 - 129.8 million (91%). In the coming years, Russians will continue to actively buy smartphones, the penetration rate of which by the end of 2017 will be 57%, and by 2022 - 73%.

By the end of 2017, 69% of the Russian population will live in the coverage area of ​ ​ LTE (4G) networks, and by 2022 - 80%. At the same time, by the end of 2017, 46.5 million Russian subscribers will use LTE communication, and by 2022 - 171.33 million. In 2021, the first 5G users will appear in Russia - 0.52 million, and by 2022 their number will reach 0.78 million.

2016

The volume of mobile traffic amounted to 1/7 of the fixed in Russia

The growth of fixed Internet traffic in Russia in 2016 amounted to just over 15%. The consumption of mobile traffic is growing more dynamically - growth over the year amounted to 48%, up to 3.8 billion GB - this is about 1/7 of the volume of consumed fixed traffic, Vedomosti writes in April 2017.

According to analysts, the growth in the number of mobile Internet users amounted to 7.5% as a whole, while the average monthly traffic increased by 34%.

Revenues from mobile Internet are growing slower - over the year by only 12%, while the total revenue of cellular operators is reduced due to competition and a decrease in revenues from voice communications. One way to increase profits is to raise the cost of services, and a number of operators have already begun to abandon unlimited tariffs.

Content Review

Mobile Internet has become the main service of mobile operators around the world. Throughout 2016, most of the operators left their data tariffs unchanged, but introduced new proposals with an increased traffic package. At the same time, in many countries, where the cost of 1 gigabyte of mobile data exceeded Russian tariffs tenfold, tariffs decreased. Compared to the tariffs of the Russian Beeline, the cost of one gigabyte of data in the UK (UK) is 7 times higher, in South Korea - 6 times, in the USA and Germany - 5 times. Cheaper than in Russia, mobile Internet in Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Egypt. These countries are united by the low development of mobile networks and the growing competition between operators, which affects the quality of services provided.

In most countries of the world, among the offers of operators there are no tariff plans with unlimited data transmission traffic. The exception is some Scandinavian countries, where, due to the small geographical area and the small number of subscribers, operators can provide such a service without significant costs for the network and service. Among large developed countries, only in the United States unlimited tariffs were launched by all operators in February 2017, which was the result of increased competition. It is especially worth noting that unlimited tariffs of American operators assume a minimum subscriber ARPU of about $80 per month. For comparison, in Russia ARPU is about $6.

Tariffs for mobile Internet in Russia in 2016 decreased by 14%. The largest price decline in the countries in which the rating goes happened in Kazakhstan (76%), Egypt (63%), Malaysia (71%), Norway (51%) and Algeria (88%).

For more details see broadband access prices in Europe, USA and Russia

TNS: half of Russian users go online from a smartphone

50% of Internet users in Russia go online using smartphones. This figure is correct for the population over 12 years old living in cities of 100 thousand + (over the past year it has grown by 18%), and in Russia as a whole, the figure is 43%. The main increase in indicators in this sector is ensured by an audience over 25 years old. Such data was presented by TNS Russia.

The second segment in terms of growth dynamics is the Smart TV audience, the growth of which from April-September 2015 to March-August 2016 was 16%. At the same time, growth is not so noticeable for large cities - only 6%.

As for the time of use of devices, so far in large cities with a population of 700 thousand people, the main time of content consumption falls on PCs - 128 minutes per day. In all age categories in mobile devices, users spend about 20-30 minutes less.

Social media remains the most frequently visited type of resource. On a PC, users most often use search engines. The top 3 in terms of content types in both categories include video resources and TV. Every month, 16.2 million people watch videos on PCs and 12.8 million people on gadgets. It is noted that in general, viewers with mobile devices are younger than PC users. Most of the audience of video resources are women (51%) 25-34 years old, work as specialists in various fields. On average, there are 3.8 video resources for each Russian user.

2015

J’son & Partners Consulting

According to J'son & Partners Consulting estimates, as of the end of 2015, there were 107 million active subscribers of mobile data transmission (SIM-cards) in Russia. The subscriber base increased by 9% compared to the results of 2014. The main drivers of the growth in the number of mobile data users are the growing penetration of smartphones and tablets, as well as the development of the M2M market .

Separately, we note the growing popularity of mobile applications and heavy mobile content: video and TV. Mobile messengers have already become one of the main means of communication between people, without geolocation services, many motorists do not represent their way, and some mobile applications have no popular analogues at all on the "big" Internet. Smartphones and tablets are considered by many users as the main devices for watching videos, music and games. Thus, not only the total active subscriber base of the mobile Internet increases, but also the average traffic per device.

The proliferation of high-speed data technologies (HSPA +, LTE) makes it possible to comfortably use services with "heavy" Internet traffic. In addition, devices with LTE support are becoming more affordable, it became possible to purchase 4G smartphones and tablets with 4G for less than 5 thousand rubles, which is especially important in light of the current difficult macroeconomic situation.

According to J'son & Partners Consulting estimates, in 2015, the total Russian mobile data traffic reached 2.5 EB per year, compared with the results of 2014, the indicator increased by one and a half times.

One of the main factors in the growth of mobile data traffic is also the replacement of conventional mobile phones with smartphones, which on average consume tens of times more traffic. Note that since 2012, the active subscriber base of mobile Internet users on smartphones has tripled, and traffic per device has quadrupled.

Content Review: Mobile Internet fares in Russia are among the lowest in the world

Russia took second place in the ranking of countries with the cheapest mobile Internet, losing only to Iran in this indicator, the Vedomosti newspaper writes. ^[12] with reference to the report of the analytical company Content Review.

As part of the study, Content Review analysts compared the cost of 1 GB of mobile traffic in countries in the top 50 in terms of GDP, converting the tariff of one of the operators in each country into rubles at the Central Bank rate as of February 22, 2016.

At the same time, to calculate the average cost of mobile access, analysts used the prices of tariff options that allow users to purchase traffic packets equal to or close to 3 GB. Approximately this amount of data per month is downloaded from the Internet from one mobile device by the average subscriber.

According to the results of the analysis, it turned out that Russia 1 GB costs 117 (rubles offer "") MegaFon- nine times less than in Britain (1111 rubles) and (Japan 1,081 rubles), and six times less than in (Germany 771 rubles) and (726 South Korea rubles). At the same time, in Iran, which ranked first, the cost of 1 GB from the operator Hamrah-e-Avval is approximately 13 rubles. The third place in the ranking was taken (131 Poland rubles per 1 GB).

The devaluation of the ruble is one of the reasons for the cheapness of mobile Internet access in Russia, but at the same time, a change in the tariff in local currency has a much greater impact on the country's place in the ranking.

OpenSpace: The speed of mobile Internet in Russia is growing

On March 17, 2015, the analytical agency OpenSpace reported the results of measurements, the object of which was the speed of mobile Internet in countries and regions of the world^[13].

Technical measurements were carried out in economically developed countries of the world. According to the chart presented, Russia shows progress in this direction, ahead of the United States, Japan, the Philippines and Mexico.

Speed and Country Rating, 2015

According to experts, it is in these countries that the Internet access service for smartphones and gadgets - 4G is very popular.

If we analyze the results of measurements relevant for new generation networks, it is noticeable that in Russia the average speed of mobile Internet per second was 9.6 Mbps. Japan lags behind in this indicator - the average speed of using mobile Internet per second is 8.9 Mbps. The download speed of information in the United States does not exceed 7 Mbps. Russia is ahead of the United States by almost 43% in terms of information download speed.

Nevertheless, the Russian Federation is in 23rd place in terms of development rates. In 4G this rating list, he occupies the forefront. Spain Here, the speed of mobile Internet is available for users at least 18 Mbps. In second place Finland with an indicator of 17 Mbps. They do not lag behind Finland. Denmark South Korea

By March 17, 2015, according to OpenSpace, 128 countries had successfully mastered the 4G communication standard. Eighteen countries are set to launch this communication standard in 2015.

2014

Dynamics of mobile Internet access in Russia: preliminary results of 2014

On March 16, 2015, J'son & Partners Consulting presented brief results of a study of mobile Internet access in Russia: preliminary results of 2014.

Key indicators of the Russian market

As of March 2015, the mobile data revenue segment is one of the fastest growing segments of additional services in Russian cellular networks. The active growth of the mobile Internet segment is based on the active deployment of third and fourth generation networks, an increase in the user audience and traffic consumed by users. Separately, analysts noted an increase in the penetration of tablet PCs in the population. According to Gartner, in Russia there are 3 smartphones per tablet PC.

According to preliminary estimates by J'son & Partners Consulting in 2014, there are about 99 million subscribers of mobile data networks in Russia.

The subscriber base increased by 10%, compared with the results of 2013, the penetration of mobile Internet reached 70%. ^[13] of the ^[13].

According to J'son & Partners Consulting estimates, at the end of 2014, the average traffic per active mobile data subscriber is 1.6 GB per month.

Smartphone owners are the most active users of mobile Internet in 2014. 52.6 million subscribers used mobile data transmission, generating 1.2 GB of traffic per month, on average, per user.

Analysts noted a change in the structure of consumption of mobile traffic in Russia. If in 2013, in total, tablets and smartphones accounted for 30% of traffic, then in 2014 this figure reached 47%.

Mobile Internet Forecast

Taking into account the growth in the total number of users of smartphones and tablets, J'son & Partners Consulting expects an increase in the total active subscriber base of mobile Internet more than 150 million subscribers by the end of 2018.

Drivers for the development of mobile Internet in Russia

According to J'son & Partners Consulting, the main drivers of subscriber base growth and average mobile data traffic:

• Fast growth in smartphone and tablet penetration.
• Introduction of new high-speed data transmission technologies (HSPA +, LTE). Increased coverage of 3G/4G networks in densely populated areas of the country.
• Reduction in the cost of mobile Internet in Russia. The low cost of traffic "opens" mobile Internet for any user of a smartphone or tablet PC. The cost of one megabyte of traffic in the basic tariff plans of Russian operators is lower than that of operators in the USA and Europe.
• The emergence of new applications for mobile Internet access devices. Growing popularity of geolocation services.
• The growth in the popularity of video services among users and, accordingly, the increase in the share of "heavy" Internet traffic.
• Growing demand for LTE-based services from users. A significant increase in LTE connections in Russia is expected as the lineup of subscriber mobile devices - smartphones and tablets with support for this technology and "Russian" frequencies increases, as well as as such devices become cheaper.
• The interest of operators and vendors in expanding the LTE network ecosystem, in high-tech equipment of devices. In the future - a decrease in prices for subscriber equipment.

Barriers to the development of mobile Internet in Russia

• Lack of awareness of the benefits of mobile Internet access; lack of user awareness of LTE technology.
• High prices for supported subscriber devices. LTE
• Insufficient penetration of 3G/4G and other standards of "fast" mobile Internet access. Low throughput of data networks against the background of growing data traffic.
• In many regions of Russia, the quality and real speed of 3G Internet (and other "fast" data transmission standards) is lower than announced by operators.

"Mobile Internet Usage on Smartphones and Tablets in Russia"

According to a study by J'son & Partners Consulting "Using Mobile Internet on Smartphones and Tablets in Russia," conducted in July 2014, among the entire Russian Internet audience, 87% have ever used wireless Internet access. 8% of people in Russia use wireless Internet access more often than fixed, and 4% use only wireless access.

Analysts note that in terms of its popularity in Russia, mobile Internet access has now completely caught up with fixed ones. It becomes an integral part of the lives of many people, the penetration of smartphones and tablets in the hands of the population is growing.

Among all wireless Internet users on smartphones and tablets, 88% are actively using cellular operators to access the Network. Only 12% of users use Wi-Fi.

Analysts at J'son & Partners Consulting believe that in 2013-2014. the growth in the popularity of wireless Internet access in the network of mobile operators was facilitated by the emergence and active promotion by the latter of specialized tariff plans and package offers with the included traffic package at the cost available to the subscriber.

According to J'son & Partners Consulting estimates, as of the end of 2013, there were about 90 million mobile data subscribers in Russia. Compared to 2012, the subscriber base increased by 17%, and the penetration of mobile Internet reached 63%. The average traffic per 1 active mobile subscriber per month was 1 GB.

According to the study, 38% of mobile Internet users on smartphones and 47% of users on tablets are going to spend more time online on their devices. Taking into account the growth in the total number of users of smartphones and tablets, analysts expect an increase in the active subscriber base of mobile Internet to 140-145 million subscribers by the end of 2018.

2013

TNS

According to TNS as of January 2013, the majority of mobile Internet users in Russia (49%) go online using smartphones. A year ago, ordinary cell phones were in the lead. In January 2013, their share decreased by one and a half times and amounted to 34%. The share of tablets, on the contrary, increased - from 6 to 16%.

The distribution of mobile devices by platform has also changed. According to Yandex.Metrics, as of February 2013, Android and iOS account for about 60% of mobile devices for accessing the Web (a year ago it was 42%). The number of phones running Java and Symbian has sharply decreased.

In 2012, the penetration rate of "stationary" Internet in Russia was significantly lower than the global average (59% to 70%). However, the penetration of mobile Internet in Russia over the same period more than twice the global average. At the same time, 93% of the world population uses mobile communications, and in Russia this figure reaches 98%. June-August 2014. As a result, the most promising alternative to web services was identified.

The audience of Internet users in Russia in 2013 amounted to about 70 million people (59% of the country's population). At the same time, according to TNS, on average during the month 53.1% of the population use the Internet only from personal computers, 44.5% of the population use both mobile and desktop network access channels, and only 2.4% of the population are users of exclusively mobile Internet. Thus, the total audience of mobile Internet users in September 2013 amounted to 21.2 million users.

J’son & Partners Consulting

J'son & Partners Consulting (Jason & Partners Consulting) analyzed the markets of the following countries: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. As of the beginning of May 2014, LTE networks were launched in all of the considered CIS countries (with the exception of Belarus), and 3G networks in all countries. At the same time, in the countries considered, with the exception of Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, the fastest technology of the existing 3G technologies was launched today - DC HSPA +, which provides a peak data download speed of up to 42 Mbps.

The leader in 4G penetration was Russia (1.4%). As of April 2014, according to J'son & Partners Consulting, there were more than 2 million LTE connections in the country in more than 50 regions of the country.

According to J'son & Partners Consulting, the largest penetration of mobile Internet users (the number of active connections per 100 residents) in 2013 was recorded in Armenia, Kazakhstan and Russia - 68%, 67% and 63%. In these countries, services based on 3G/HSPA networks are provided by 4 operators, LTE networks are launched. According to the results of 2013, the total active subscriber base using mobile data services in Russia reached 90 million subscribers (SIM cards) and increased by 16% compared to the results in 2012.

Thus, Russia is a technological leader among the CIS countries. Other technology leaders include the Republic of Moldova and Armenia.

2012

TNS: 27% of the population of large cities

According to TNS, in December 2012, about 16.7 million residents of large Russian cities used various mobile devices (phones, smartphones, tablet computers) to access the Network. This is almost 27% of the total population of these cities.

Over the past year, mobile Internet audience has grown by 35% (by comparison, the entire Internet audience has only increased by 12% over the same time). The largest growth was shown by the Volga and North-Western federal districts - the audience here increased by 60 and 53%, respectively. Only the Far East is knocked out of the overall picture - here the audience has decreased by 4%. The penetration of mobile Internet is also growing faster than the penetration of the Internet as a whole - the growth for the year amounted to 6 pp. (a year earlier - 3 pp.). Interestingly, according to this indicator, the regions practically do not lag behind the capitals.

The lowest cost of mobile Internet access is in the Southern Federal District, the largest accessibility index is in St. Petersburg. In both indicators, the Urals are far behind. By spending the same part of his salary on mobile access as the average Russian, a resident of the Ural Federal District can download 40% less data without speed restrictions.

J&P: Penetration rate 55% (40 million people)

According to J&P, the penetration of mobile Internet access in Russia at the end of 2012 amounted to 55% (about 40 million subscribers), which is 2.4 times higher than the global average (2.9 times higher than Indonesia, 3.4 times higher than China, 9.1 times higher than India).

At the same time, Russia is inferior to a number of developed countries: the penetration of mobile Internet access in Japan - 85%, the USA - 81%, Germany - 65%^[14]

In 2012, the number of cellular subscribers using mobile Internet access from smartphones increased in Russia by 88%, to 22.5 million, according to a study by J'son & Partners Consulting. The number of tablet owners using mobile access increased 8.3 times, to 2.5 million. The average monthly traffic per mobile Internet subscriber using a smartphone was 303 MB, the tablet was 450 MB.

At the same time, there are still much fewer users of the mobile Internet with smartphones and tablets than subscribers using simple mobile phones to access the Network - 40.5 million. The average monthly traffic per Internet user of this group was less than 50 MB.

According to J&P's forecast, tablet sales in Russia during 2013-2015 will grow 2.3 times and amount to 5.8 million devices in 2015, smartphone sales will increase 1.7 times, to 22.2 million.

According to a J&P study published in mid-December 2012, by 2015 the smartphone fleet will increase 2.3 times and amount to 63 million devices, and the number of tablets - 12 million devices.

The audience of the mobile Internet is growing twice as fast as the audience of the Internet as a whole. According to TNS, in January 2012, more than 22% of all residents of Russian cities with a population of over 100 thousand people used various mobile devices (cellular phones, communicators, tablet computers) to access the network. Over the past three years, the monthly audience of the mobile Internet has almost doubled, while the audience of the Internet as a whole is only 50%. Moreover, in terms of the penetration of the mobile Internet and the pace of its development, large Russian cities almost do not lag behind Moscow and St. Petersburg.

As the main mobile means of accessing the network, more than half of Russians use ordinary cell phones, about 42% - smartphones and communicators, the remaining 6% - tablets. In Moscow, the ratio is slightly different: most Muscovites (56%) use smartphones and communicators, and tablets in the capital are almost twice as popular as on average in large cities of the country.

Explosion of Internet access from smartphones

In 2012, the number of cellular subscribers using mobile Internet access from smartphones increased in Russia by 88%, to 22.5 million, according to a study by J'son & Partners Consulting. The average monthly traffic per mobile Internet subscriber using a smartphone was 303 MB.

According to a J&P study published in mid-December 2012, by 2015 the smartphone fleet will increase 2.3 times and amount to 63 million devices, and the number of tablets - 12 million devices.

2009: Operator revenue growth by 63%

In 2009, the user audience of mobile Internet service grew by 45% to 45.3 million subscribers.

The dynamics of the development of the Russian market for mobile Internet services justifies the increased interest in it from operators who invest billions of rubles in its development annually. According to the results of 2009, revenues of Russian mobile operators in this market segment increased by 63% to 41.6 billion rubles ($1.3 billion), which is 63% more than in 2008 (or 31% growth in dollar equivalent).

The main trend in the Russian mobile Internet market in 2009 was the construction by operators of the Big Three 3G networks, limited in time by the terms of licenses issued in 2007. In some cities, 3G networks are often built on two to three base stations. However, despite this, as well as the relatively low penetration rate of cellular phones that support the UMTS standard (about 17%), according to the results of 2009, Internet traffic in Russian cellular networks increased by 138% compared to the same indicator in 2008 to 13.9 Petabytes.

The leader in the mobile Internet segment is Megafon. Its users generated 39% of all traffic. In 2009, Sky Link's position weakened significantly: the company's share in the overall traffic structure decreased by 6% from 25% to 18%.

• In 2009, the share of 3G traffic increased from 2% to 22%, during the same period the share of EDGE/GPRS traffic decreased from 73% to 59%.

• The barrier to the development of the mobile Internet market at the moment is:
  • relatively low penetration of UMTS phones;
  • insufficient coverage of 3G networks in the regions;
  • dominance of "pro-megobyte" tariffs over flat-rate tariffs.

• SHDP markets of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan

are characterized by an extremely low level of service penetration. User expenses of these countries for Internet access services are quite high.

• In all CIS countries, the penetration rate of broadband access services does not exceed 20%. At the same time

the minimum value of the penetration rate of cellular services among the CIS countries - 40% (Turkmenistan). On average in the CIS, the penetration rate of cellular communications is 88%

• The insufficient level of cable infrastructure development in the Russian regions, as well as in the CIS countries, makes 4G mobile Internet competitive and removes the service from the category of "niche"

• Operators must be prepared for an avalanche-like increase in traffic in their networks to ensure the proper quality of service Comprehensive support of the new BSC standards from the state, both economic and legal (regulation)

2008

Revenues in the mobile Internet market (data from J'son & Partners Consulting (Jason & Partners Consulting)):

• 2008 - RUB 20.4 billion (up 87%).

Mobile Internet audience in Russia (data from J'son & Partners Consulting):

• 2008 - 35.2 million people.

VimpelCom is the leader in the number of regions in which 3G networks are built. At the same time, VimpelCom began to build third-generation networks later than everyone else (since September 2008).

ARPU of Sky Link Internet subscribers - 900 rubles. MTS also says that 3G subscribers have an ARPU higher than the GSM segment by at least 20-25%. Sky Link also cites the MBoU of data transfer - 612 MB.

If we consider Russia in the Federal Districts, taking into account the networks of all 3G operators (MTS, VimpelCom, Megafon and Sky Link), then the Volga Federal District (20 regions) is the leader in the number of regions with 3G networks. This is followed by the Northwestern and Central Federal Districts (16 regions each), as well as the Siberian Federal District (11 regions).

In addition, the study says that at the end of the first half of 2009, Russians had more than 122 million mobile phones (this category also includes smartphones and communicators).

During the reporting period, more than 1.1 million cellular modems (USB devices and PCMCIA cards) were sold in the country at an average retail price of $80 (2,500 rubles). "The volume of sales for the first half of 2009 exceeded the sales of modems for 2008 as a whole, which indicates an increase in the popularity of mobile Internet," the authors of the report note.

In VimpelCom, CNews said that the company's own estimates do not coincide with the data of the J'son & Partners study. So, at the end of the 2nd quarter of 2009, the operator launched 3G networks in 51 regions of Russia, and other figures appear in the report. In general, according to the results of the past quarter, revenue growth from VAS services at VimpelCom"" amounted to 42% compared to the 2nd quarter of 2008. The main product here is Beeline USB modems, the sales of which from July 2008 to reached about 1 million units.

The number of active subscribers of Beeline broadband access in the 2nd quarter of this year increased by 1.1 million people in annual comparison. In general, according to the results of the 2nd quarter of 2009, the number of Russian broadband Internet access subscribers, including FTTB and mobile broadband access, reached 1.7 million people.

To date, MTS 3G networks, according to the company itself, have been launched in 40 cities in all federal districts of Russia. Revenues from MTS data transfer services in Russia during this period increased by 54% to 4.37 billion rubles. In the 2nd quarter of 2009, the volume of Internet traffic transmitted in the MTS 3G network increased by 10% in quarterly terms; and in Q1 2009 - 3.2 times compared to Q4 2008.

Today, more than half of active users of 3G services from MTS generate about 1 GB of traffic on average per month. The number of MTS mobile Internet subscribers at the end of the 1st half of 2009 increased by 30% on an annualized basis. The number of unique users in MTS 3G networks in Russia is doubled quarterly, the company told CNews. The regions with the largest traffic volume in 3G MTS networks are Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Vladivostok.

Free analysis reports

The state and prospects for the development of mobile Internet in Russia. Think Tank Video International