Due to Internet outages in the Russian Federation, SMS messages began to be sent more often

Citizens and organizations in the Russian Federation began to send more SMS messages to each other — in the summer of this year, the traffic of such messages, which had been steadily falling since the early 2010s, increased by 12-15%, market participants told Izvestia.

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According to one of them, this applies to both service messages — authorization codes, information about payments and delivery of goods — and personal correspondence.

"The total number of outgoing SMS messages sent by our subscribers has increased by an average of 15% over the past six months," the Megafon press service told Izvestia, comparing the middle of summer with the beginning of the year.

Daria Kolesnikova, a representative of T2, noted that in the first half of the year there was a stabilization and a slight increase (by 2%) in SMS newsletters for businesses, as well as in the exchange of messages between individuals (P2P).

Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group, confirms that SMS traffic is growing for the first time since 2013. According to him, the main reason is the disconnection of the mobile Internet, due to which push notifications do not work. In such circumstances, SMS becomes the only reliable communication channel for banks and other services.

Active use of SMS is not the only way to adapt to mobile Internet outages. This method is one of the ways to deal with drones attacking various objects. In this regard, citizens and businesses are turning to alternative solutions.

So, as Izvestia reported, Russians began to buy routers for home Internet more often. The demand for these devices doubled in June and July compared to the same period in 2024. Authorities and businesses are currently discussing streamlining the rules for such communication restrictions.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

A message from the past: due to Internet outages in Russia, SMS messages have become more frequent