Capital users are being accustomed to ever higher internet access speeds / M. Sergeev

Mobile result 90%

Moscow was covered by 3G networks at the end of 2013 (excluding the districts that became part of the city limits on July 1, 2012), according to the DIT report. A year earlier, this figure did not exceed 80%.

In 2013, operators invested 25 billion rubles in Moscow communications networks - 33.7% more than the year before (18.7 billion rubles), according to a report by the Moscow Department of Information Technology (DIT). These investments are provided for by the "Information City" program, which assumes that over five years (2012-2016) 310 billion rubles will be invested in Moscow communications networks and IT, including 186.5 billion rubles by the city, says DIT representative Konstantin Gorokhov. In 2014, operators should invest about 26 billion rubles in Moscow, he adds.

The report does not say what the funds were spent on or which operators invested more and which less. The main result of the year was the growth in the penetration of high-speed (10 Mbit/s and higher) fixed broadband Internet access (BBA). If in 2012, 31% of Moscow subscribers used BBA services at such speeds, then in 2013 - already 50%. This is partly the result of the construction of an optical Internet access network using GPON technology by the Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS), the report says. By the end of 2013, about 700,000 subscribers were connected to it, and a year earlier - only 200,000.

Managing partner of iKS-Consulting Konstantin Ankilov agrees: more than 50% of Muscovites use Internet access with speeds over 10 Mbit/s, but over the past year this figure has grown, according to his calculations, by only 5 percentage points. He names Rostelecom (excluding its subsidiary Central Telegraph, the growth was about 80,000 users) and MTS with its subsidiary MGTS (about 55,000) as the leaders in terms of net growth of Moscow broadband subscribers.

MTS is constantly expanding its Moscow mobile broadband coverage area (3G and 4G/LTE), and in the fixed-line sector, where its subsidiary MGTS operates, it has invested $2 billion over five years (2011-2015), replacing copper networks with modern optics, says MTS representative Dmitry Solodovnikov. Thanks to GPON technology, the number of customers who connected to wired Internet at speeds of 100 Mbit/s has doubled over the past year, so that in December 2013, 43% of MGTS subscribers whose homes are connected to GPON used broadband and digital TV (this is almost 2 million households in all areas of Moscow).

Ankilov sees several main reasons for the growth of operator investments. Firstly, cellular companies were completing the construction of third-generation mobile networks (3G), building 4G and increasing the capacity of transport channels. Secondly, MGTS and Akado were actively developing, expanding and modernizing their broadband networks. Thirdly, although the fixed broadband market has long been saturated, operators continue to expand - they are completing networks in certain areas, laying cables to new shopping centers, etc.

One of the tools of competition between broadband providers in Moscow is to increase the speed while keeping the subscription fee unchanged, states Alkhas Mirzabekov, executive director of the Gorkom group of operators. If at the end of 2012, for 500 rubles a month it was possible to use a speed of up to 15 Mbit/s, now it is 50 Mbit/s, i.e. indirectly, tariffs have decreased more than 3 times, he explains. In the last couple of years, Rostelecom's average Internet access speed with unchanged tariffs has increased several times, says its representative Andrey Polyakov. Moreover, less than 10% of the operator's Moscow subscribers use the lowest speeds, and the most popular tariffs provide for speeds of 20-50 Mbit/s and higher.

Increasing the speed for the same money is a good marketing tool, Ankilov agrees, but there is a speed threshold when the subscriber stops feeling the quality improvement and it becomes difficult to make him change the provider just for the sake of higher speed. For corporate clients who pay an order of magnitude more for broadband, this incentive may be more effective, the analyst admits.

Solodovnikov indirectly confirms this: MGTS intends to significantly strengthen its position in the segments of servicing corporations and government agencies, and sees particularly great potential in the niche of services for government agencies - in the next three years it will grow by an average of 40% annually. For example, MGTS is already involved in the creation of a communications network for managing and monitoring passenger traffic at 132 transport hubs, in organizing video surveillance of parks, squares, adjacent and access areas of residential buildings and schools, etc.

Last year was a record year for VimpelCom in terms of investments, including in the Moscow region, says company representative Anna Aybasheva. True, the funds were primarily invested in mobile communications - primarily in 3G networks, which VimpelCom underfunded for several years, as a result of which it fell seriously behind its competitors and only caught up by the end of 2013. Investments in Moscow fixed broadband have always been at the proper level, says Aybasheva. This market is already saturated, but there are still growth areas - these are the areas of new Moscow with their new buildings, as well as corporate clients, she continues. There are more and more shopping and business centers in Moscow, and VimpelCom, according to Aybasheva, has long held a leading position in the commercial real estate market.

Operators Spend Money on Moscow