The III annual national conference "Telecom of the Future 2026" was held in Moscow

On April 17, 2026, one of the key events of the telecommunications industry took place at the Moscow Continental Hotel — the III annual national conference "Telecom of the Future 2026". The event brought together representatives of the top management of leading telecom operators, telecom equipment manufacturers, software developers and leading industry experts. The participants gathered to discuss strategic vectors for the development of communications infrastructure, issues of technological sovereignty and the introduction of artificial intelligence into business processes.

The business program of the conference was built around key challenges facing the industry: from the role of telecom as a platform for digital progress to practical aspects of equipment import substitution and cyber resilience in the era of widespread AI.

The program was opened by the strategic dialogue "The telecommunications industry as a key infrastructure for progress, security and new opportunities." The moderators were Denis Kuskov, CEO of IA TelecomDaily, and the head of the Technologies project RG.ru Oleg Kapranov. MTS CEO Inessa Galaktionova and Avito Senior Managing Director Artyom Kumpel took part in the discussion.

The focus was on the transformation of the telecom infrastructure into a platform for scaling digital services, improving the quality of life of Russians and ensuring an ethical and secure digital environment. Special attention was paid to the democratization of artificial intelligence and lowering the entry threshold for the use of AI technologies by millions of citizens.

The plenary discussion "The new landscape of the industry: Telecom as a platform for digital sovereignty" became the central event of the first half of the day. The experts, chaired by Denis Kuskov and Oleg Kapranov, reviewed the new public mission of telecom operators in the context of interaction with the state and business, and also assessed the current level of maturity of the Russian technology stack for the implementation of sovereign AI.

The key topic of discussion was the prospects of launching 5G networks on domestic equipment in cities with a population of one million within the time limits set by the Ministry of Finance of Russia. The participants analyzed the readiness of base station manufacturers to market conditions and discussed new models of partnership between government and business to scale production.

The discussion was attended by Yulia Klebanova, Director of Telecommunications Development at YADRO, Maxim Nartov, Director of Business Development at Nexign, Vladimir Freikman, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at STC PROTEY, Viktor Emelin, Technical Director of Beeline Moscow Region, and Vladislav Lapchenko, Director of work with telecom operators at Basis.

The session "Production of telecom equipment and base stations: from import substitution to export potential", moderated by Denis Kuskov and Oleg Kapranov, brought together leading representatives of the manufacturing sector. During the meeting, the real level of import substitution on existing networks, the dynamics of equipment replacement and forecasts up to 2030 were discussed. The experts touched upon the issues of creating domestic carrier-class solutions for the core of the mobile network as an object of critical information infrastructure. Special attention was paid not only to hardware, but also to software: the ability to account for R&D costs in the localization scoring system, as well as embedding cybersecurity requirements into the hardware architecture at the development stage.

The final session of the conference "Digital transformation of the communications industry and cyber resilience: how AI changes business, creates new opportunities and threats" was moderated by Oleg Rogov, Head of the AIRI Trusted and Secure Intelligent Systems group, and Andrey Kondratiev, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Telesputnik. The participants discussed how technologies born in the telecom environment become drivers of change in other industries, and reviewed practical cases of integrating AI into operators' business processes. The agenda also included the transition to intelligent self-learning platforms, technological partnerships between operators and IT integrators and vendors, as well as the problems of data reengineering to implement AI algorithms.

A large block of the discussion was devoted to cybersecurity. Experts analyzed the new threat landscapes associated with the use of generative AI by attackers, discussed the gap in the maturity of cyber defense between various market players and the search for ways to form the "immunity" of businesses and users to new types of attacks. In the framework of the session with the report "From perimeter protection to protection of meaning: How does AI change the very nature of cyber attacks?" Oleg Rogov spoke.

The speakers of the section were Vladislav Sokolov, Deputy Head of the Department of Quantum Communications of Russian Railways, Ivan Ryl, Director of Development at BSS Bercut, Vladimir Nelyub, Director of Science and AI at Astra Group, and Ilya Korolev, Director of Strategy at Beeline Cloud.

The conference ended with a summing up, during which the moderators and participants noted the richness of the business agenda and the constructive nature of the discussions. The event confirmed its status as one of the key platforms for forming a strategy for the development of the Russian telecommunications industry in a new technological cycle.

The conference was organized by the Telesputnik portal, IAA Telecom Daily and TMT Conferences.