Russia faces internet communications crisis due to equipment shortage

The Information Technology Committee of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) has warned of an imminent large-scale disruption of Internet services in Russia due to a lack of available telecommunications equipment.

In order to visually demonstrate the current difficulties, the Committee has prepared a report document that details the actual challenges faced and also puts forward some recommendations specifically to alleviate these challenges.

According to Russian media that have had access to the document, the current situation is very dire, and the committee stressed that telecom operators' equipment reserves can only last for another six months.

Affected by the Russo-Ukrainian war, Western equipment suppliers have gradually withdrawn from the Russian market and no longer sell communication equipment components to Russian entities. The Internet industry has been greatly affected, and the first obvious service interruption may begin as early as this summer.

It is worth mentioning that the price of equipment that can still be purchased has increased by about 40%. If the ruble continues to depreciate, the economic problems of Internet service providers in Russia will become more serious.

Affected by the above situation, even if Russia's largest telecom operator reduces its investment plan, its financial expenditure will still increase from 390 billion rubles in 2021 to 450 billion rubles in 2022.

To address these issues or at least mitigate their effects, RSPP made the following recommendations to the Russian Ministry of Digital Development:

• Suspend contributions to the Universal Communications Services Fund until the end of 2022;
• Reduce the cost of radio spectrum by 50%;
• Reduce the property tax rate to zero and exempt communications industry employees from taxes.

However, Kommersant reported that the Russian Ministry of Digital Development is unlikely to take any radical measures to solve the problems of the Internet industry. Another source also said that the Russian Ministry of Digital Development has rejected these proposals, saying that success and good business performance are not the result of state support, but good decisions of the companies themselves.

Mass exodus of IT experts

In addition to equipment shortages, a large number of IT technicians fleeing Russia is also a headache for IT companies. Natalia Kasparskaya, co-founder and former CEO of Kaspersky, said that the scale of the outflow of IT experts has been quite large since the end of February.

Last week, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the boss of a large internet research agency, publicly called on the government to take action to stem the flow of talent to foreign countries by imposing fines and travel restrictions on some people who quit their jobs without reason, but the Ministry of Digital Development refused to formulate plans to hinder the flow of people to foreign companies.

Instead, the Russian government emphasizes that companies need to offer competitive working conditions to make the domestic job market more attractive to both Russians and foreigners.

The RSPP document also addresses the issue of talent loss, warning that the Internet industry could lose up to 30% of its highly qualified specialists in the coming months. According to the latest data from the Russian Association of Electronic Communications, 50,000 to 70,000 IT specialists have left Russia since February, and another 100,000 may leave by April.

Reference article: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/russia-facing-internet-outages-due-to-equipment-shortage/