Russian operators are going to block illegal VoIP-traffic from abroad (Skype Out, Viber)
The largest Russian operators MTT, Rostelecom, MTS, Vimpelcom, Megafon and T2 RTK Holding (Tele2) have begun to work together on ways to block voice traffic, which lands on Russian telephone networks through local gateways and is rated as local. Thus, calls to landline and mobile numbers from VoIP-services like Skype Out, Viber, etc. are made.
Operators lose money if, instead of the standard fee for an international call ($ 0.14 per minute), they receive payment only for a local call (0.95 rubles per minute, a little more than $ 0.01), Vedomosti writes .
Internet messengers and VoIP-services offer users cheap long-distance communication and drive voice traffic over the Internet, thereby violating the rules for connecting to the Russian telecommunications networks. To avoid the monopolist’s tariffs for international calls, tricky “fraudsters” do not call from abroad through a network of telephone networks, but through an Internet channel to a local switchboard or gateway to transform an Internet call into a regular cellular call, disguising it as local call and replacing the number.
According to Russian rules, a call from abroad must first go through the network of one of the Russian international communication operators (for example, Rostelecom, MTT or Transtelecom), then through a fixed area network (or regional network of the cellular operator), and then terminate on the local telephone network.
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For many years, these rules were ignored, which allowed Russians to take cheap international calls, but soon the “freebies” could come to an end. Deputy Andrei Azhigirov, director general of the MTT Core business unit, said that cellular operators agreed to allow calls from local operator’s networks only to numbers issued by the Federal Telecommunications Agency to their networks.
Naturally, the blocking of VoIP traffic occurs for the benefit of the users themselves: “Because of the junction between the Internet and telephone networks, the quality of communication is lost, while the called subscriber does not see who is calling and cannot call back to the interlocutor,” explained MTS representative Dmitry Solodovnikov.
According to MTT, about 40% of international telephone traffic (about 80 million minutes per month) flows through illegal schemes to Russia. The turnover of traffic exchanges, which, through intermediaries, sell cheap calls to Russia to foreign operators, is about $ 4 million per month. The damage for Russian telecom operators, according to various estimates, ranges from $ 115 million to more than $ 2 billion a year.
In 2014, deputies Igor Lebedev, Yaroslav Nilov, Vadim Dengin, Leonid Levin, Andrey Svintsov and Vladimir Krupennikov tried to carry out the relevant amendments to the Law on Communication, but the media made a noise about “blocking Skype” and decided to postpone the project relieve tension, ”Nilov said then. This time the operators act more carefully.
Operators lose money if, instead of the standard fee for an international call ($ 0.14 per minute), they receive payment only for a local call (0.95 rubles per minute, a little more than $ 0.01), Vedomosti writes .
Internet messengers and VoIP-services offer users cheap long-distance communication and drive voice traffic over the Internet, thereby violating the rules for connecting to the Russian telecommunications networks. To avoid the monopolist’s tariffs for international calls, tricky “fraudsters” do not call from abroad through a network of telephone networks, but through an Internet channel to a local switchboard or gateway to transform an Internet call into a regular cellular call, disguising it as local call and replacing the number.
According to Russian rules, a call from abroad must first go through the network of one of the Russian international communication operators (for example, Rostelecom, MTT or Transtelecom), then through a fixed area network (or regional network of the cellular operator), and then terminate on the local telephone network.
')
For many years, these rules were ignored, which allowed Russians to take cheap international calls, but soon the “freebies” could come to an end. Deputy Andrei Azhigirov, director general of the MTT Core business unit, said that cellular operators agreed to allow calls from local operator’s networks only to numbers issued by the Federal Telecommunications Agency to their networks.
Naturally, the blocking of VoIP traffic occurs for the benefit of the users themselves: “Because of the junction between the Internet and telephone networks, the quality of communication is lost, while the called subscriber does not see who is calling and cannot call back to the interlocutor,” explained MTS representative Dmitry Solodovnikov.
According to MTT, about 40% of international telephone traffic (about 80 million minutes per month) flows through illegal schemes to Russia. The turnover of traffic exchanges, which, through intermediaries, sell cheap calls to Russia to foreign operators, is about $ 4 million per month. The damage for Russian telecom operators, according to various estimates, ranges from $ 115 million to more than $ 2 billion a year.
In 2014, deputies Igor Lebedev, Yaroslav Nilov, Vadim Dengin, Leonid Levin, Andrey Svintsov and Vladimir Krupennikov tried to carry out the relevant amendments to the Law on Communication, but the media made a noise about “blocking Skype” and decided to postpone the project relieve tension, ”Nilov said then. This time the operators act more carefully.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/392273/
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