CNews.ru, a major Russian source of IT and telecom industry news, has put together what it dubs “an anti-ranking” of last year’s most disappointing developments in Russia’s information and communications technology sector.
From delays in major government supported programs, to debacles in Asia, to 4G oligopoly, East-West Digital News highlights the most significant setbacks.
- Zuckerberg in Moscow: a negative pointer for Russian IT firms
The October 1 meeting in Moscow between Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg provoked a flurry of negative comments from across Russia’s IT business spectrum. Flaunted officially as Zuckerberg’s high-level encouragement for Russian developers to create apps for his social network, his performance was interpreted by IT community leaders and by 48% of CNews.ru readers as backhanded and aiming to poach Russian programmers from their current employers and lure them to America. The commentators were particularly annoyed by the fact that the rendezvous with the prime minister seemed to “add legitimacy” to Zuckerberg’s plans.
- E-government still months away
A widely touted nationwide e-government system, designed to facilitate interdepartmental interaction between government agencies and streamline the offering of government services to citizens, failed to meet its July 2012 deadline for full launch. Now the federal authorities promise to kick-start the system later this year.
- “Administration” government automation lagging behind
The ‘Administration’ government automated system, which was supposed to link all federal and regional authorities by January 1, 2013 for data exchange on their activities, won’t get going until some time in the second half of this year. The Ministry of Telecommunications and the Federal Treasury are blaming each other for the delay.
- Government’s open source software still shunned
In 2010, then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin decreed the creation in 2012 of the so-called unified open source software repository for use by federal authorities. However, the project has fallen through so far. The Ministry of Telecommunications, the federal agency responsible for the effort, says it needs more time to look into the usefulness of such a repository.
- Healthcare IT systems far from unified
In 2011, the Ministry of Healthcare endorsed a concept of tapping IT systems to introduce unified standards of healthcare service across the Russian regions. What was actually launched last year seems to be a far cry from what was originally intended. It seems to represent a derailment of the unification plan, as regions have to spend their own funds on their own computerized systems, and what they set up is not linked to the federal database.
- IT–powered air traffic control remains up in the air
In late 2012, the commissioning of the new Moscow Automated Air Traffic Control Center to handle more than 50% of all flights across Russia was pushed back for a second time. Air traffic controllers will now have to wait another 18-to-24 months for the new system while they still run dilapidated and malfunctioning systems installed in the early 1980s.
- RVC’s unexpected allergy to IT
The Russian Venture Company (RVC), the national fund of funds for innovation, seems to have turned its back on the IT sector last year, with only three IT-related deals closed by its related funds and only one of those ($10 million for David Yang’s iiko.ru) formally announced – a sharp decline from RVC’s 15 IT deals in 2011.
- IBS and Borlas’ divorce
The merger between two Russian systems integrators, IBS and Borlas, once hailed as a momentous deal in Russia’s IT industry, turned out to be one of the sector’s biggest might-have-beens. The partners broke up in early 2012.
- Internet ‘blacklist’ proven useless
The government’s online banned web content register, launched on October 1, 2012 in a bid to “crack down on cyber-extremism and banned information that may be harmful to children,” fell short of expectations. With its 100 entries, the list covers only a fraction of malicious content on the Internet; and the owners of the banned websites have found it easy to change IP addresses and dodge blocking. The Russian government’s very attempt to classify outlawed content with such a list raised lots of eyebrows, too.
- The Asian woes of Sistema and MTS
It was a bad year for MTS, a leading Russian mobile operator, and its main shareholder, AFK Sistema. MTS effectively lost its asset in Uzbekistan, in Central Asia, to what the Russian firm terms “brazenly abusive suppressive acts” on the part of the Uzbek government. Adding to the anguish, another Asian country, India, revoked all telecom licenses and suggested that Sistema pay India 12 times the amount the Russian company originally invested there in 2008.
- LTE oligopoly
Tenders for 800MHz / 2.5GHz frequencies to be used for LTE-based telecommunications, orchestrated by Megafon, Vimpelcom, MTS and Rostelecom, were labeled behind the scenes as the “4G oligopoly” as the influence and domination of Russia’s Big Three mobile providers and the national telecom operator made them four easy winners and left smaller operators such as Tele2 Russia outside the fray. The Russian government’s promise to hold more tenders specifically for regional operators was never kept last year.
