Russia’s new “anti-terrorist” legislation could come into force in 2019 only (instead of 2018 as initially planned), allowing operators to implement it in better conditions.
Examining this controversial legislation adopted last year, an official expert group led by Mikhail Abyzov, Russia’s Minister for Open Government affairs, has recommended that significant changes be brought to make its implementation less costly and more rational.
In particular, as reported earlier this month by business daily Vedomosti, the expert group believs that the law should not apply to the heaviest types of content such as online videos and IPTV — which account for some 80% of traffic volume. Text and voice content have more value for the authorities to control, the expert group argues.
Included in the current version of the law is the requirement to telecom operators and “organizers of information distribution” — a category which may include any website — to store any type of content from their users’s communications for a period of six months. Metadata on these communications will need to be kept for three years by telecom companies and for one year by “organizers of information distribution.”
Avoiding massive price hikes
The Russian authorities are also considering ways to compensate mobile phone operators for the massive costs associated to implementing this legislation.
In earlier estimates, the operators themseves predicted that implementation cost could reach 2.2 trillion rubles (more than $30 billion), leading to massive price hikes in telecom services in Russia. Another estimate put the cost at up to 10 trillion rubles (some $150 billion), not taking into account the fact that the cost of the required equipement is likely to fall on the global market.
Abyzov’s group has estimated the cost to be much lower, however.
Mobile operators MTS and Megafon have suggested to start with a pilot project covering specific areas. This will allow to clarify the complexity and costs of implementing the law, they say.
According to Oleg Demidov, a consultant from PIR-Center, such a pilot project would only confirm how difficult and costly the operations would be, and may lead to postponing the implementation of the law by another few years, or significantly alter it.
