Internet providers ask the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media to let them into homes without an agreement

Photo source: Evgeniy Astashenkov / Interpress / TASS

At the same time, several major Internet providers of federal significance addressed the Minister of Communications and Mass Media, Konstantin Noskov, with a request to support the project on liberalization of access to apartment buildings, approving some amendments to the Law on Communication.

Among the others who applied were MegaFon, MTS, VimpelCom, ER-Telecom Holding and Rosteleset Association, according to Kommersant. The project itself on simplifying the access of operators to the common property of residential buildings was submitted to Gosumu at the end of December.

In particular, amendments were proposed to the law “On Communications” and other acts implying access to apartment buildings for telecom operators without compensation and without an agreement. However, the Ministry of Construction suggested that operators be obliged to conclude compensated agreements with the Criminal Code, and the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media “currently supports the contractual system,” as stated in the letter of the operators. In this case, their payments amount to at least 10 billion rubles or 300 per subscriber per year. And this "will adversely affect the competition and, as a result, the quality and price of services."
')
At the moment, operators can go for free to a large number of houses. But if the law requires you to pay money, the cumulative increase in tariffs will definitely happen, as warned by Rosteleset President Oleg Grishchenko.

He claims that the expenses indicated in the letter are estimated only on the basis of the operators who signed the document. Market participants admit that the relationship between the management company and providers is "opaque and in a gray zone." For example, ER-Telecom has to pay various MCs at least 1 billion rubles for access to the house infrastructure.

The protocol of the meeting of the expert council of the Federal Antimonopoly Service states that the current costs of providers for accessing homes are at least 2.7 billion rubles a year. At the same time, in some cases the placement of equipment takes place free of charge, and in others - under contracts with the Criminal Code. The cost of services of these organizations varies from 500 rubles. up to 80 thousand rubles.

If the operators are allowed to enter homes free of charge, this will allow to observe the interests of the owners of residential premises and providers. According to the curator of the working group “Svyaz and IT” of the Expert Council under the government of Irina Levova, the policy of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications “is often not in the interests of the development of the digital economy,” including on this draft law.

In turn, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media is “unequivocally opposed to existing barriers”. “But, probably, it is better for residents if the Criminal Code at least knows which operators are coming into the house. So that we do not get a situation where overlaps will be broken in houses, roofs will flow, and the sky will be in the wires when there is no document defining the rights and obligations of operators and the Criminal Code. ” According to him, “it should not be a compensated contract, but it could be a typical non-cash contract,” said Evgeny Novikov. The Ministry of Communications is planning to discuss this issue again with operators at the beginning of the week.

The Ministry of Construction declared support for the bill if it is finalized. Thus, representatives of the ministry believe that the Criminal Code should still be authorized to conclude contracts with operators without the need for approval at a general meeting of owners. But free access of providers to the attics of houses in Minstroy is considered “unacceptable”. One of the concerns concerns the “anti-terrorism security” of homes.

As the Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing and Public Utilities Andrei Chibis reported in February of this year, the official contract will oblige the management company to provide the provider access to the house and provide all the necessary technical conditions for installation.

Providers believe that risks can be leveled by developing rules for interaction between telecom operators and the Criminal Code. For violation of the rules, you can enter administrative responsibility. We are talking about fines and "up to the revocation of licenses from the Criminal Code." Megafon believes that transparent rules of interaction with the Criminal Code should promote competition among operators and the exclusion of unreasonable costs when providing services to residents. Rostelecom has not yet signed the letter, but fully supports the draft law on non-discriminatory access. But it is possible only if it is free of charge and there is no contractual relationship, as Vitaly Nedykhalov, the head of interaction with the authorities of VimpelCom, is sure of.