Indecision The Ministry of Communications puts off OTT regulation

I noticed that recently the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media began to throw into some kind of extremes. The sluggish and inconsistent position of the agency is somewhat similar to the behavior of a windy girl who is not able to decide for a rich girl to marry or for a lover. At first, it is against the “Spring package” - “what are you, telecom operators are facing such losses” ! Then they are behind - “nothing terrible has happened yet, the law is framework, let's quickly implement and leave me alone from the World Championship - nothing threatens it” .

The reasons for this behavior may be several. It is possible that the young minister’s lack of the level of influence necessary for the post, and perhaps concern for the affairs of the state, suffers because of the interests of his subordinates, most of whom are from commerce. “And here they meet in the smoking room Vasily Petrovich, who was at Rostelecom, and Pavel Nikolaevich, who was at Beeline, and begin to bargain, to whom the“ Spring package ”will bring benefit, and to whom harm” . For a moment, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media is responsible for such important areas for the country as development and modernization of communication systems, information security of the population, construction of information infrastructure and promotion of new technologies, such as 5G.
')
Recently, the ministry once again demonstrated its position a la “I will - I will not - no, I will nevertheless”, abandoning the idea of ​​regulating the work of VoIP operators.

Carriers vs OTT
What's App, Viber, etc., in the right corner of the ring, with a team of 10-15 people running their applications from the garage, parasitizing operators' communication networks, depriving them of income, taking jobs from telecom operators, selling themselves to Facebook for billions of dollars and denying any attempts to cast doubt on their success “we have made billions here, and you are just jealous, try also, you only need a garage and a couple of computers”.

In blue, the carriers are suffering, suffering losses from OTT services, because you used to send 10 sms per day, and today you go to Telegram and you can even attach a picture.

It all started with the fact that sufferers-operators, using their entire lobbying resource, for several years began to push the idea of ​​the need to regulate Internet messengers, focusing on a whole series of horror stories, ranging from "there the terrorists communicate" to "will get spam more than posts.

Following the operators, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications has also announced the need to regulate OTT.

The cup of patience was overflowed and the operators “boiled” when OTT services began to provide voice call services. After a bit of banging, the operators estimated and realized that the introduction of voice calls by OTT services represents an opportunity for them to enter from the other side - from the direction of controlling VoIP “landing” on fixed or mobile numbers. Regulation in this case, by and large, means enforced numbering by VoIP operators. And getting the numbering = dependence on the state.

And in May, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications published a draft government decree modifying the interaction of telecom operators in Russia, from which it follows that VoIP operators will not be able to join local, zonal and other networks.

Everyone lobbies, but Rostelecom always wins.
At the beginning of August, a clause about calls to VoIP subscribers in the network of other operators disappeared from the new version of the project that establishes the rules for interaction between operators. But the point remained about the need to pay compensation to operators that occupy a significant position (more than 25% of the numerical capacity in the region), and in most regions it is Rostelecom.

The operators were alarmed and, in a rash of the moment, they proposed to abolish the institution of essential operators as such.

***

In general, mobile operators will not receive any VoIP regulation, and, most likely, will be forced to pay compensation to significant operators. After all, one way or another, calls from Skype to fixed numbers are made from the network of a particular telecom operator.

As a result, the regulation of VoIP and OTT, which was already long overdue, was postponed indefinitely due to the inconsistent position of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, which in my opinion could lead to a decline in one of the most developed industries in Russia and a reduction in jobs. After all, any connection - it is not out of thin air.