14 DAY TRIAL // In an unprecedented act, Russia's mobile phone operators have met with state officials and proposed several law amendments to limit the usage of Internet-based telephony. The action is considered to be aimed at external operators like Skype and ICQ, which have taken a big bite out of the communications & telephony market in Russia.
Legal actions have started when several Russian-based mobile companies like TransTeleCom and MegaFon joined efforts and formed a lobby group called RSPP (Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs). The group met last week with state officials and, with the help of Vladimir Putin's political party, formed a working group to draft several possible law amendments that would be presented later this year.
The RSPP's great concern is that the rising market share of free VoIP services is expected to hit 40% in 2012, which will severely diminish internal revenue for many Russian mobile operators. Coupled with the present financial crisis that has not been easy on the local economy, and the ever-present control paranoia of the Kremlin government, the future seems to be bleak for Skype, ICQ, Google Voice or the local Zebra Telecom. "Most of the service operators working in Russia, such as Skype and ICQ, are foreign. It is therefore necessary to protect the native companies in this sector and so forth," an RSPP press release said.
The lobby group's members and state officials have not been shy when trying to justify their plans, blaming it all on the poor security and control features in modern-day Internet calls. The fact that callers can't be identified in Internet calls and conversations cannot be logged or recorded by Russia's home security service is just the perfect justification, as, according to the official press release from the RSPP, the lobby group called upon state officials "to identify the juridical status of IP telephony, [...] formalize relations with this phenomenon."
Even if not publicly admitted by the government, Russia is not happy with the fact that most VoIP providers don't pay taxes, don't invest in local infrastructure and offer free services that cut down the profit of many mobile operators in Russia. No profit, no taxes, no money for the government and probably no Skype or any externally owned VoIP provider in Russia.
A future meeting between the RSPP and state officials is planned for late September 2009.
