Refusal of tariffs with unlimited Internet sharply slowed down the growth of the number of Yota subscribers

The growth of the subscriber base of the Yota telecom operator, which operates on Megafon's infrastructure, has slowed sharply since January of this year, writes the Vedomosti newspaper, citing data from employees of three Big Four operators.

The slowdown in Yota audience growth is evidenced by data from other operators on the number of Yota subscribers in contact with subscribers of their own networks. The counting of such “contactors” is carried out monthly, but it includes data not only for a specific month, but also for the two previous ones. Thus, in the fourth quarter of last year, 2.5 million Yota subscribers called subscribers of one of the Big Three operators, 13.2% more than in the previous quarter. In the first quarter of this year, growth in this indicator slowed to 3%, becoming the lowest in the last two years. In the second quarter, Yota audience growth was 4.9%, but this result is far from the double-digit figures of the last year and a half.

According to the publication’s interlocutors, the main reason for the sharp slowdown in the growth rate of the subscriber base was Yota’s refusal to offer unlimited Internet tariffs for new subscribers, announced at the end of January, when the operator introduced a new tariff line.

Representatives of MTS, VimpelCom and Tele2 did not comment on the Yota audience data. In turn, a representative of Yota said that the operator’s subscriber base is actively growing even after the change in the tariff line, but did not disclose the growth dynamics. Finally, MegaFon representative Yulia Dorokhina noted that the growth rate of the subscriber base has slowed down across the entire market, which is logical given the mobile penetration rate of about 180%.

Let us remind you that earlier all the Big Four operators announced the refusal of tariffs with unlimited Internet. The operators explained this step by the fact that the actual traffic consumption on unlimited tariffs is not much higher than on regular tariffs, but their users create a high load on the network. This, in particular, was stated by Tele2 CEO Sergei Emdin, who called unlimited tariffs “a drug that destroys the network.”

In June it became known that such unanimity among operators aroused suspicions among the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). Then the department reported that the FAS could open a case in connection with the concerted actions of operators that limit competition.