Date: 21 Feb 2018

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FAS keeps asking and asking operators mobile communications remove roaming, and those - all resist and resist. Has MTS finally canceled roaming in Russia or not? Let's figure it out.

FAS and Roaming

First you need to understand what roaming is. Intranet roaming is a communication and data service provided by a mobile operator outside the "home region" in the network of this operator. The home region is the region of Russia in which you bought and issued a SIM card. Tariffication of mobile communication and data services outside the home region may differ from the tariffication in the home region and, most often, it is.

The FAS has been trying for many months to "convince" telecom operators that intranet roaming is a relic of the past and should be abolished. But mobile operators are resting, because with the full abolition of roaming, they can lose solid money. By the way, MTS changed the conditions national roaming(Crimea, etc.). You can read about it.

What did MTS do? At least there are no statements about the abolition of roaming this time, and this indicates two things: MTS did not lie in the title, roaming has not been canceled. But let's see what changes await us.

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Changes as of February 28 and March 14, 2018

From February 28, 2018, a number of tariff plans (including archived ones) will have a new billing for minutes, SMS and mobile Internet outside the home region in the MTS network (the same intranet roaming). MTS promises price cuts from two to ten times.

Based on the news, it can be noted that the changes will affect only the tariff plans "", "", "", "" and "". Very modest, to be honest. Anyway…

Changes to roaming conditions for "Smart", "Smart Unlimited", "My Unlimited"

From February 28, 2018, the paid intranet roaming option is canceled on Smart, Smart 052013, Smart 102014, Smart Unlimited 032017 and My Unlimited tariffs. The one that was 15 rubles a day. Now packages of minutes, SMS and Internet can be used on the terms of the home region for free.

On the one hand, the news is certainly good. On the other hand, for such a description of a service with a footnote, MTS should have been fined a long time ago and forced to change the description. The tariff is valid throughout Russia, but please pay for it. It's good that it was removed altogether...

The package of minutes will be spent on MTS Russia numbers, as well as on numbers of the host region. If the package of minutes ends, calls to MTS Russia numbers will remain free.

Any incoming calls from the host region - 0 rubles per minute, but other incoming calls - 5.5 rubles per minute. Now this is not great at all. Especially considering that on all fresh MTS tariffs, even in roaming, there were free incoming calls! And what is this "as in the home region"? After all, at home you do not pay for incoming messages from other regions of Russia? It is in such details that the essence of the abolition of roaming should lie! But no, alas. If you receive a call from your home region to the region of your stay, please pay 5.5 rubles per minute incoming call. Not cool, MTS!

If the package includes long-distance outgoing calls to numbers of other operators, then they will be spent outside the home region. In this case, if you go on a trip to Russia, your home region ceases to be your home region - now calls to this region are considered long-distance. If long-distance calls to numbers of other operators are not included in the package of minutes, then a minute will cost 5.5 rubles.

SMS to the numbers of the region of stay will be spent from the package of minutes.

The services "All Russia SMART" and "Everywhere like at home SMART" will no longer be paid on these tariff plans, and payment for communication will occur under new conditions. Is it healthy? Yes, so-so, to be honest. The fact is that with the service, for example, Everywhere at home, you could really be at home everywhere, but now it turns out that you will be at home only in the region of your stay. And even then, not quite “like at home” (hello, paid incoming calls). Nothing has been said about the “Everywhere at home” service (without SMART), so we will assume that it will still be available on these tariff plans.

Changes in roaming conditions for "Super MTS" or "My friend"

"My friend" is the same " Super MTS”, only a SIM card is issued as a gift. You can read about the My Friend tariff.

From March 14, 2018, there will be changes in the conditions of intra-network roaming on the tariffs of the Super MTS and My Friend line.

Incoming from numbers in the region of stay - free of charge (instead of 10.9 rubles per minute). Good news! Incoming calls from numbers in the home region and other regions of Russia - 5.5 rubles per minute ("instead of 10.9 rubles per minute" - it is written in the official MTS news, but this only applies to very ancient tariffs, because the new incoming calls were free!)

Outgoing calls to any numbers in the host region - according to the conditions of the home region (instead of 14 rubles per minute), outgoing calls to the numbers of operators in the home region and MTS Russia - 5.5 rubles per minute (instead of 10.9 rubles per minute), outgoing to the numbers of operators other operators in other regions of Russia - 5.5 rubles per minute (instead of 14 rubles per minute).

SMS to numbers in the host region - 1.95 rubles (place 3.95 rubles), SMS to other numbers in Russia - 2.95 rubles (instead of 3.95 rubles).

Also, for a whole bunch of options, money will no longer be withdrawn, and the conditions will be new. That is, these tariff options will not work.

The "Bit" and "MiniBit" options will work when traveling around Russia at home without any additional payments and additional connections.

And again for the old ...

MTS seems to have lowered prices, removed fees for some dubious services (15 rubles per day on Smarts), but at the same time, for many subscribers, the need to connect roaming services will not disappear, which allow you to feel “like at home” when traveling around Russia, since incoming from the home region will become paid.

And if you need such calls to be free, and calls to the numbers of all mobile operators Russia cost you 3 rubles per minute, then you need to connect a new additional option"Russia is at home everywhere." Option description: .

The service for tariffs "Smart", "Smart Unlimited", "My Unlimited" - "Russia Home Package" will also be offered. This option will allow you to receive all incoming calls for free, and calls and SMS to the hole in your home region will be spent from the packages. Option description: .

And what is the result? If you want to feel like at home, do you need to connect additional paid options? What is this cancellation of roaming? Yes, prices have come down, but it's only a tiny step towards cancellation. Let's see what FAS has to say...

On August 13, the deadline expired by which mobile operators MTS, MegaFon, Beeline and Tele2 had to eliminate the extra charge for communication services in intranet roaming. So far, no company has done this.

Photo: Alexander Shalgin / TASS

​Until August 10-13, the Big Four mobile operators— MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom (trademark Beeline) and T2 Mobile (a subsidiary of T2 RTK Holding operating under the Tele2 brand) were to report on the fulfillment of the FAS order to cancel the markup for subscribers for communication services in intranet roaming.

The markup is valid in the network of the same operator with which the subscriber has a contract, but outside the "home" region, that is, where it was concluded.

According to the requirements of Russian legislation, operators must notify subscribers of all changes in tariffs ten days before their introduction. But at the beginning of August, none of the Quartet participants informed subscribers about the change in the principles of tariffication in intranet roaming.

In the address of the operators of the "quartet" followed from the FAS in mid-July. The service considered that setting different tariffs for services cellular communication in the home region and trips around Russia violates paragraph 6 of part 1 of Art. 10 of the Law "On Protection of Competition", which prohibits companies in a dominant position from restricting competition by setting different prices for the same product without justifying it economically, technologically or otherwise.

“Moving to another region of the country, being in the network of its operator, the subscriber receives completely different price conditions than in the home region, and the more expensive the subscriber’s tariff plan, the smaller the difference in tariffs for cellular services at home and on trips for such a subscriber” , the FAS said in a statement. The FAS analysis showed that the prices for communication services (calls within the region, outside the region, SMS messages, data transfer) while traveling should not differ from prices in the home region. The service required operators to eliminate the unreasonable difference in each tariff plan.

Video: RBC TV channel

As a representative of the FAS press service told RBC on Friday, August 11, the service received information from operators "related to the implementation of the department's warnings." “Including petitions for familiarization with the analytical report based on the results of the market analysis. All materials come with the stamp “for official use”, therefore, they are not subject to disclosure,” he said. Whether someone from the "four" reported on the abolition of the markup, as well as other details, the representative of the FAS refused to report.

According to two RBC sources close to the Quartet operators, in letters sent to the FAS by MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom and T2 RTK Holding, they ask the department to clarify the essence of the prescription. “It is not clear what tariff operators will have to apply to a subscriber in intranet roaming - the one that operates in his home region, or the one that operates in the region where the subscriber is in roaming. At what rates, local or long distance communication, subscribers will call to their home region, according to which - within the region of stay, ”explains one of RBC’s interlocutors.

According to him, if it is decided that the subscriber will have to communicate in roaming at the rates that are in effect in the region where he arrived, and if these rates are lower than those in his home region, it will be easier for the subscriber to buy a new SIM -card. “The question arises of how to deal with fraud (fraud, unauthorized actions in the communication network. — RBC). In the end, all operators will equalize tariffs across the country, ”says a RBC source in one of the Quartet operators. According to him, the operators also turned to the Federal Antimonopoly Service with a request to increase the deadlines for fulfilling the order.

MTS spokesman Dmitry Solodovnikov said that the company "is in dialogue with the Federal Antimonopoly Service", but refused to disclose his details. Representatives of MegaFon, VimpelCom and T2 RTK Holding also declined to comment officially. The representative of MegaFon, Yulia Dorokhin, earlier said that it was impossible to change about 3 thousand tariff plans throughout the country within the period specified by the department. According to her, it will take "months, maybe years" for the operator's IT services to change.

At the same time, the FAS representative stated that the deadlines could be extended. To do this, operators must submit a petition to the Office, which will justify this need.

Head of Communications Regulation and information technologies FAS Elena Zaeva said earlier that if the operators do not eliminate the violations by the deadline, the service will initiate a case on violation of the antimonopoly law. After that, a commission should be created, and up to six months are allotted for consideration of the case. At the same time, the FAS has the right to use such an instrument as transferring unreasonably received income to the federal budget, Zaeva noted.

MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom and T2 RTK Holding do not disclose how much they earn in intranet roaming. The CEO of TMT Consulting, Konstantin Ankilov, estimated the Quartet's revenue from roaming in Russia in 2016 at about 35 billion rubles. This is 4% of the total income of these companies.

The four largest operators in Russia and the Federal Antimonopoly Service have come to a common compromise on whether or not to cancel roaming in 2018. Soon Russian subscribers will no longer pay this service. The basis for this decision was the decree signed by the president and the national plan No. 618 of December 21, 2017, approved in accordance with it, aimed at eliminating the unreasoned difference in tariffs for mobile services when subscribers leave the country. home network.

On December 19, 2018, the State Duma adopted in the final 3rd reading the law on roaming developed by A Just Russia, which established uniform conditions for subscribers cellular networks RF, regardless of the region.

Back in 2018, the Federal Antimonopoly Service gave the Big Four operators a directive to prepare for the abolition of roaming in Russia. Three service providers, VimpelCom, MegaFon, MTS and Tele2, have deadlines for carrying out the necessary technical work.

According to the signed document, the new rules should come into force on 06/01/19.

The goal of canceling roaming in Russia in order to reduce unreasonably high prices was set by the antimonopoly service last year. But due to the scale of the work, it was not possible to implement it by the end of December 2018. Most likely, the problem will be solved only by the middle of 2019. There are no grounds for accruing additional charges for calls from one region to another when a subscriber leaves the home network. The coverage of the largest Russian operators covers almost the entire territory of the country (with the exception of Crimea). On the peninsula, communications are provided by their regional companies, whose activities are regulated by relevant agreements.

The FAS plans to monitor the process of refusing to pay for services for subscribers that involve the use of resources from different networks. In case of non-compliance with the requirements, the organization has the right to initiate cases on violation of clause 6, part 1, article 10 of the law “On Protection of Competition” that has come into force and initiate the seizure of income earned illegally.

In his speech, the head of the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation N. Nikiforov assumed that already in the 2nd half of 2018 there would be no global issues regarding roaming in Russia. But, in practice, the process may take at least another 6 months (until the beginning of summer 2019).

Actions of the "big four" operators

According to experts, the leading operators began to prepare in advance for the possible cancellation of roaming. Despite the requirements of the antimonopoly service for the even distribution of all additional payments for the service, they began to systematically raise tariffs. For comparison: prices for services increased by 1.5 times compared to 2016.

Regarding the implementation of the instructions to cancel roaming on the territory of Russia in 2018, the actions of the Big Four can be observed today:

• Beeline (Vimpelcom) started the process of stabilizing tariffs in national roaming in December 2017.
• Megafon plans to cancel intranet roaming in the coming weeks.
• "MTS" officially announced the reduction of tariffs for subscribers during trips across Russia, including for the period of stay in the territory of the Crimea.
• Tele2 at first took a wait-and-see attitude, but under the threat of punitive measures from the FAS, it moved to take active steps to abolish roaming.

So far, not all companies have fully complied with the intranet roaming cancellation directive. No matter how the operators resist, by May 2019 they will have to finally revise their tariffs and regulate the billing system.

According to I. Artemyev, head of the FAS RF, the agency is actively figuring out “who, why and how” and is ready to use its entire arsenal in the implementation of the national plan.

As for the territory of the Crimean peninsula, this moment there is intra-network national roaming. At the same time, on the territory of the peninsula there are Russian operators communications, but due to the fear of falling under international sanctions, subscriber services are provided without the participation of the Big Four.

There is no reason to fear that the refusal of roaming will provoke another wave of tariff increases in other sectors in 2018-2019. The balance of interests of subscribers and communication companies will be maintained due to additional traffic growth. According to I. Artemyev, this will be implemented by removing barriers for cellular companies and building a new model that provides for non-discriminatory access to residential buildings.

The new bill quite clearly outlined the time frame for all operators in Russia. Sergei Mironov drew attention to the fact that the government had been waiting for more than a year for active actions from companies providing cellular communication services in the territory of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. We offer you to look at the video, what promises he made not so long ago:

Now the law has been passed and, whatever the opinion of the Big Four companies themselves, they will have to comply with it from June 1, 2019.

Intra-network roaming of cellular communications on the territory of one's own country has always caused a lot of dissatisfaction and questions from users. This option is valid for absolutely all Russian telecom operators. No matter how profitable your tariff is, as soon as you cross the border of the region, which is marked as “home” by the operator, calls become shorter, emotions are more restrained, Mobile Internet no longer as interesting as at home. The concept of "roaming" appeared simultaneously with cellular communications: subscribers use, telecom operators provide. And only years later, the unexplained increase in the cost of a call when moving around one country interested the antimonopoly service. With such enthusiasm, the FAS set about studying the issue of financial profit of cellular campaigns when selling a service that allows a person to stay in touch, that it was planned to cancel roaming as early as 2017. However, this did not happen, and cellular operators do not want to lose this income item on their own. Will it bring federal Service started business to completion? When will roaming in Russia be cancelled? From what date in 2018 will it be possible to move around the country without fear of being left without communication?

Types of roaming provided by mobile operators in Russia

Operators selling cellular services offer their subscribers three types of services

• intranet roaming,
• national roaming,
• roaming on the Crimean peninsula.

The roaming service within the network has always caused the most questions: the subscriber is within the boundaries of the operating stations of the same operator, but, leaving his "home" region, uses the services of the same communication over more high price. The FAS considers the increase in the cost of intra-network roaming calls to be completely unreasonable. Having shown curiosity, you can find tariffs with your operator that do not divide calls into "home" and "calls in roaming", as a rule, these are tariff plans"VIP" or "Business".

The so-called national roaming is easier to explain from an economic point of view. Being in a region where the native operator has not built its network and cannot provide its client with a communication service, the subscriber uses the capacities provided by another operator for this.

In this case, the operator providing the opportunity to communicate by phone is not chosen by the subscriber himself, but again by the “native” operator. This is due to the mutual provision of their services by two operators to each other, naturally, at the expense of the subscriber.

Roaming in Crimea is the same national roaming. The only difference is that there are no well-known operators providing mobile communication services on the peninsula. On the territory of Crimea, there are no branches of large companies of any industry of world importance at all. They closed their representative offices after Crimea became Russian territory, and explain their action by international sanctions that have been imposed on the occupied territory of Crimea. Coming out of the current situation, Russian operators conclude agreements on cooperation and mutually beneficial provision of services with small local cellular communication companies. Invests this cooperation again, the subscriber.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, which are designed to take care primarily of the interests of users of communication services, argue that in 2018 it is planned to cancel the intranet and national types of this service. How the aforementioned ministries will convince mobile operators to provide each other with the opportunity to use their networks free of charge is not yet clear, but this should no longer fall on the shoulders of the subscriber.

The operators, having familiarized themselves with the requirements of the FAS, expressed their readiness to revise the tariffication of intra-network roaming and provide free incoming calls throughout Russia. Thus, it is planned to build a single telecommunications space across the country.

When to wait for the abolition of roaming in Russia in 2018

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications promised to come to grips with the abolition of roaming in the first half of 2018. If everything goes smoothly, roaming within Russia will be canceled by July 1st.

The promise will be kept by this date or earlier, the ministry does not say.

In turn, the FAS, reporting to the media, reports on the work carried out with mobile operators. Much attention in this moment given to intranet roaming. Operators who fail to comply with the order are subject to disciplinary action.

To cancel roaming within the same network, operators have been given the following deadlines:

• Beeline, Megafon and MTS cancel roaming until the end of January 2018
• Tele-2 can provide the service until the end of May 2018

In fact, not all operators have taken action to cancel the inexplicable intra-network roaming service, continuing to make easy profits from frequently changing regions of subscribers.

Regarding national roaming, legal proceedings have been initiated against some telecom operators. After analyzing the cost of services provided by cellular companies for the implementation of national roaming services as artificially high, the antimonopoly service saw this as a conspiracy to make a profit.

FAS employees are convinced that starting from mid-summer of this year, Russians will think about connecting roaming only when leaving the territory of our country, and types of roaming within their country, and especially their operator, will sink into oblivion.