Last week, Rostelecom subscribers in social networks complained about the growth of fees for home Internet. From November 1, the fee for the Internet rises "as part of a general price increase," two of them quote a message from the operator. Denis Kuskov, CEO of Telecom Daily, knows what is happening. According to him, the archived tariffs of the operator in the Volga region, in the Urals and in parts of the regions of the North-Western District of Russia increased by 5–7%. This was confirmed by an employee of Rostelecom.
Phased indexation of archive tariffs will affect all of Russia, say two Rostelecom employees. According to one of them, the increase in tariffs by waves will pass through all regions within a few months and can vary from 5 to 7%. In absolute terms, tariffs will increase slightly by an average of 20-30 rubles., Specifies the source "Vedomosti".
At the end of Q3 2018, Rostelecom served 12 million private Internet users and 5.1 million Internet TV users (IPTV), follows from the company's report. In the first nine months of this year, Rostelecom's revenue from Internet access amounted to 58.7 billion rubles. (a little more than 25% of the total revenue of the operator).
According to the employee of the operator, Rostelecom revises tariffs due to general economic factors. From January 1 of the next year, the VAT will increase (from 18 to 20%), which will affect the cost of services. Plus, tariffs are influenced by the weakening of the ruble, which makes import content more expensive, as well as equipment, he says. By November 1, the dollar has risen from the beginning of the year by 13.9% to 65.6 rubles. It follows from the data of the Central Bank.
Finally, we need funds to fulfill the requirements of the law of Spring, a source at Rostelecom said. The representative of the operator does not comment on the costs of the law. But Megafon, VimpelCom and MTS have already disclosed the planned costs: for five years, the execution of the law could cost them 40 billion, 45 billion and 60 billion rubles. respectively. The antiterrorism amendment package instructs operators to store all telephone conversations, text messages, images, sounds, videos, and other electronic information of users. For five years, operators should increase the storage capacity of Internet traffic annually by 15%.
Rostelecom is not the first operator to raise prices this year, remind Kuskov and an employee of Rostelecom. Since June, some tariffs have been increased by 10% by Er-Telecom Holding, Kommersant reported. Operators are influenced by inflation, rising equipment costs, and content. To continue to provide quality services, operators revise the cost of services, quoted the publication of the representative of the operator.
Most of the federal and regional telecom operators surveyed by Telecom Daily are ready to raise tariffs at the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019, Kuskov says. The prerequisites for the growth of tariffs are the same for all: the increase in VAT, the cost of the law of Spring, the weakening of the ruble, he said. Increasing VAT and the law of Spring will sooner or later raise the issue of reimbursement of costs to operators, a source in one of the major cellular operators is confident.