In 2025, only 250 out of 10,000 villages in need will be able to provide communications.

In 2025, about 250 small settlements (up to 1,000 inhabitants) across Russia will be able to receive high-quality cellular communications and mobile Internet. More than 50 of them are located in the border areas of Bryansk, Belgorod and Kursk regions. Slightly less than 130,000 Russians will have access to the services, according to the materials of the State Commission on Radio Frequencies (SCR), prepared by one of the cellular companies for its next meeting.

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The figures were confirmed to Izvestia by the manager of another mobile operator involved in this social project. MTS, Vimpelcom and Megafon are participating in it. As for T2, owned by the state operator Rostelecom, since 2021, under a state contract with the Ministry of Finance, it has been participating in a separate project to eliminate digital inequality, another Izvestia interlocutor explained.

The participation of the three largest non-governmental mobile operators in the social project suggests that they will be given a discount on fees for using the radio frequency spectrum, according to the materials of the State Emergency Committee. It is valid until December 31, but in order to continue the implementation of the initiative, it may be extended for a year, they note.

Now, thanks to this discount, MTS, Vimpelcom and Megafon save about 1 billion rubles annually on frequency payments, a source in the cellular market told Izvestia. According to him, the total amount of operators' fees for frequencies is about 30 billion rubles per year.

There are about ten thousand settlements in Russia where there is no normal mobile communication and mobile Internet, said Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily. According to him, 250 villages are, of course, extremely small against this background. But, on the other hand, it is not easy to build in such places: it is necessary to supply power, communication channels, and build infrastructure there — all this cannot be done simultaneously throughout Russia, such projects last for years, he noted.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

For the cellular time: in 2025, only 250 out of 10 thousand villages in need of it can provide communications.