The government will help operators in the implementation of “Spring package”, media report – RIA Novosti

09:3607.02.2017

(updated: 09:40 07.02.2017)

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MOSCOW, 7 Feb — RIA Novosti/Prime. Ministry of economic development proposes to compensate operators for the costs associated with the implementation of the package of anti-terrorist laws (the so-called “Spring package”), writes on Tuesday the newspaper “Vedomosti”.

So, the Deputy Minister of economic development Nikolai Podguzov offers to compensate the operators of expenditures from the Fund for universal telecommunications services, the newspaper said, citing a letter from the Deputy Minister. His proposal Podguzov at the end of January was sent to the government office for the meeting on the question of improving the system of provision of universal Telecom services. Meeting to be held this week, know two staff operators and confirmed by a source in the government.

All operators pay to the Fund for universal Telecom services 1.2% of revenue. This Fund is financed by the contents of the public telephones in remote villages and community access points Internet settlements of 500 people, as well as the project to eliminate digital inequality, in which are built daughter’s Internet access in the settlements 250-500 man, which built more than 200 kilometers of fiber-optic communication lines. However, in 2016, “Rostelecom” has received less from the Fund for these projects is 6.9 billion rubles.

“MegaFon” supports the initiative of the Ministry of economic development, said his spokesman. Representatives of other operators refused to discuss this topic. The interlocutors in two of them are skeptical: the Fund is simply not enough. Objections there are of “Rostelecom” to eliminate the digital divide. This will create risks of under-funding other projects, and can enhance the timing of their implementation, said the representative of the state operator.

the Package of anti-terrorism laws signed by the President in July of 2016, requires operators and Internet companies for up to six months to store information about the content of the conversations and correspondence of the users, including photos, video and audio files to provide them on request of the security services. The rate of storage of user traffic shall enter into force from 1 July 2018.

the Law also obliges companies with the use of additional coding of the messages the user to grant the FSB the keys to their decoding. Operators will also need to store information about the facts of reception, transmission, delivery calls and messages (so-called metadata) for 3 years. The law provoked sharp criticism of Telecom operators, which said that its implementation will require expenditure exceeding their revenue.