Access area: Russian telecom showed significant growth
The Russian telecommunications market has grown by 8.8% over the past few years. This was stated at the Telecom and Technology 2025 forum by the Minister of Digital Development of the Russian Federation Maksut Shadaev. First of all, this was due to the increase in tariffs by operators. Izvestia investigated how the market will change in the face of the spread of new technologies.
Growth points
Last year, the income of domestic telecom operators exceeded 2.1 trillion rubles, the press service of the Ministry of Finance told Izvestia. This is about 8% more than a year earlier. The main reason for the increase in the indicator was the increase in the cost of mobile communication services.
"Fixed-line Internet revenue increased by 11% compared to 2023. In total, the segment earned 279 billion rubles," the department said.
At the same time, the traffic of fixed and mobile networks increased by 24.4% last year compared to 2023. The total volume of traffic, according to the ministry, increased from 151 thousand to 188 thousand petabytes. The main trend in 2024 was the rapid growth in popularity of domestic video services.
At the Telecom and Technology 2025 conference, Maksut Shadaev announced that the idea of allocating the so–called golden frequency range for fifth-generation (5G) networks is being discussed again. In addition, the Ministry is engaged in an initiative to regulate the access of telecom operators to new buildings. Discussions are already underway with the Ministry of Construction.
"New houses should, [in our opinion], be commissioned when connected to three operators," the head of the department said.
The Minister stressed that this should be provided for at the level of individual building codes and regulations. The next step will be to ensure that operators have free access to government facilities.
In addition, Russia is going to make it easier for foreigners to obtain SIM cards by combining this with other necessary services.
“yeah. You can do everything in one package: SNILS, account registration, biometric identification at the MFC, at the bank. Everything is done on a turnkey basis," Shadaev said.
The head of the Ministry of Finance also spoke about the need to develop satellite communications.
"We have a huge country. Although optics is probably the most reliable way now, it is clear that it is problematic to build optics in all the most remote corners of [our country]. We have great hopes that through the low-orbit satellite constellation we will close the most remote small settlements, as well as everything related to railways and highways, where we sometimes do not have the opportunity to provide a fixed connection. This is the global connectivity that everyone is waiting for," he said.
Market structure
A significant part of the telecom revenue structure is accounted for by the mobile business — an average of 61% in 2023-2024, Elvira Yakubova, senior analyst at ACRA Corporate ratings group, told Izvestia.
— In recent years, companies have been actively engaged in the development of digital products for individuals and businesses (in particular, cloud and IT solutions, cybersecurity services, new ecosystem products) and large-scale government digitalization projects in various fields. This is a source of additional revenue, but at the same time requires significant investments in addition to current expenses, including the implementation of import substitution projects," the expert noted.
Against the background of a significant increase in interest expenses in 2024, which put pressure on financial performance, the investment programs of telecom market companies for 2025-2026 are being optimized, she noted. According to ACRA calculations, the revenue growth of the telecom industry leaders may average 8% in 2025, and the share of capital expenditures in revenue may decrease by an average of 3.6 percentage points, amounting to an average of 14.8%. Companies are likely to selectively approach new digital projects and focus on those solutions that will show good financial results.
Prospects of the sphere
The telecom equipment market will grow in the coming years, Konstantin Mikhailov, Director of IT Support and Infrastructure at RANEPA, told Izvestia.
— In the corporate and telecom segment, obsolete imported equipment is being replaced with new domestic equipment, and government policy supports import substitution. The trend towards digitalization also requires an increase in the number of connected devices to both wireless and wired networks," he believes.
According to him, the format of interaction between smart devices is also changing. Previously, IoT (the "Internet of things") existed on Wi-Fi networks, but now there is a transition to less productive, but also less energy-intensive Zigbee networks and a single Matter standard. Technology transformation also leads to the replacement of equipment by both individuals, corporate customers, and telecom operators.
At the same time, operators are forced to raise their tariffs due to inflation and the need to expand investments and modernize networks against the background of increased traffic, BCS World Investments told Izvestia. In the perspective of 2025-2026, the growth potential of the Russian telecommunications market is estimated at an average of 6% per year.
— New technologies make it possible to improve the quality of telecommunications services, offer consumers new opportunities and improved services. In the near future, the deployment of 5G networks, the use of AI in network management, customer support, analytical support, etc., the introduction of more advanced Wi-Fi standards, in particular the Wi-Fi7 format, and cybersecurity may be actively developing.
Despite the fact that communication services are still the main source of income for operators, the point of revenue growth is gradually shifting towards the non-telecommunications sector, Mikhail Beloborodov, CEO of the digital marketing agency RTA, said in an interview with Izvestia. Significant growth rates are shown by the direction of digital advertising, cloud services, Big Data-based solutions and cyber threat protection services. Many telecom companies are already offering digital television services, gaining a place in the information security and video surveillance market, and actively developing business promotion services.
"According to forecasts by researchers from Nexign and TelecomDaily, in the near future, the volume of the telecom market will increase by an average of 6% annually and exceed 2.5 trillion rubles by 2027," he stressed.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
