In Russia, intranet roaming has been canceled

President Vladimir Putin signed amendments to the Law “On Communications”, which abolish domestic roaming. The document is presented on the official legal information portal.

Now mobile operators are prohibited from charging fees to subscribers who are in intranet roaming. Within the country, uniform tariffs will be established for all calls. The law will come into force on June 1, 2019.

In July 2017, the FAS demanded that MTS, Megafon, VimpelCom and Tele2 cancel roaming when traveling within Russia. FAS stated that the current tariffs of operators violate the law on protection of competition.

The abandonment of domestic roaming is a global trend: the United States abolished it a long time ago; in June 2018, roaming for subscribers of EU countries ceased to operate throughout the entire European Union.

Despite the abolition of domestic Russian roaming, subscribers will face an increase in the cost of communication services from January 2019. Retail operators have warned that they will have to increase tariffs by almost 1.6% due to the increase in VAT. Experts believe that in the future tariffs could rise to 20%.