The 3rd International Forum MVNO & MNP Russia 2014 was held on May 5th in Moscow at Expocentre Fairgrounds. The aim of the event was to discuss lessons learnt by the industry this far and further outlook for MVNO projects, as well as to draw up the first outcomes of mobile number portability in Russia. The Forum was part of the business program of the 26th International Exhibition for Telecommunications, Control Systems, IT and Communication Services Sviaz-Expocomm 2014.
The Forum was endorsed by Federal Agency of Communications (Rossvyaz), Association of Regional Telecom Operators (ARTO) and Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC). More than 30 industry media provided information support to the event.
The partner of MVNO & MNP Russia 2014 was Interregional TransitTelecom (MTT) – long-distance and international communication service provider. In a keynote speech which kicked off the gathering, MTT CEO Evgeny Vasiliev stressed that this event, which has already become a tradition, addresses such complex, but burning issues as MVNO and MNP in Russia in the most comprehensive way. “MVNO market in Russia is still taking shape, but 2014 promises to be a turning point in its evolution, as several new and very promising MVNO projects are about to be launched, and also keeping in mind the successful implementation of MNP scheme at the end of 2013. Through these efforts MVNO in Russia stands a good chance to transform from a ghost into a real business”, reassured the audience Evgeny Vasiliev.
The event started from a plenary session, dedicated to new conditions, challenges and opportunities for MVNO projects, associated with the launch of MNP in Russia, among other factors. The session moderator – President of the Association of Regional Telecom Operators Yury Dombrovsky noted that although introduction of MNP was hasslesome and at times dramatic, this project is unquestionably one of the major milestones, which happened in the Russian telecom industry in 2013-2014. “Morethan 200,000 subscribershavealreadyusedtheMNPservice. On one hand, it’s only 0.1% of total mobile users in Russia, but on the other, considering all difficulties and tight deadlines of the project, this figure is not that low. But most importantly, operators have realized they needed to make this step and prepared for it, while industry regulator hastily developed a legislative framework required for MNP”, said Yury Dombrovsky.
Also at the plenary session, Deputy Director of the Department of Radio Frequency and Communication Networks’ Regulation at Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Media Mikhail Bykovsky brought forward a detail classification of MVNO projects and made a comparison between MVNO markets in Russia and Europe. “We believe that the future of MVNO in Russia lies with mobile data services”, commented Mikhail Bykovsky. The government official emphasized that the Ministry of Communications has no plans to force mobile operators into MVNO collaborations, as spectrum resource is very scarce in Russia, and the regulator doesn’t intend to divide it between all market players. According to Mikhail Bykovsky, organizers of MVNO projects need to figure out an appropriate business model and bring owners of telecom infrastructure an offer of service they wouldn’t want to turn down. In this case, MVNO projects in Russia will evolve a lot faster.
Other speakers at the plenary session alongside Mikhail Bykovsky included Executive Director of the LTE Union Gulnara Khasianova, Partner at Ernst & Young (CIS) B.V. Yury Gedgafov, Head of Innovations Directorate at the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation Yury Ammosov and CEO of MTT Evgeny Vasiliev, who announced the launch of a new MVNO project AIVA in Central Asia, which generated a lot of buzz in the Forum audience.
The Plenary session was followed by session 1, which assumed to address the key trends of MVNO in Russia.Other than MNP, this includes brisk expansion of LTE networks in Russia, entry of new and strong MVNO players, and increasing demand for convergence services. Speakers who delivered a report at this session, included CEO of Narodny Mobilny Telefon Vladimir Shulga, MGTS’ Chief Marketing Officer Dmitry Kulakovsky, SMARTS’ CEO Alexander Kurochkin, CEO of Gars Telecom Pavel Gorenkov and Project Manager of Svyaznoy Mobile Alexey Kraynov.
Ensuing round table was dedicated to the barriers to further expansion of MVNO in Russia. Apart from speakers from the previous session, the discussion also featured such panelists as CEO of Telecompass consulting agency Konstantin Golikov, Projects Director of Scartel Sergey Volkov and Head of Mobilux’s Business Partnerships Department Ilya Vasiliev. They reached a conclusion that the main hurdle to MVNO projects is opposition from the Big Mobile 3 operators, along with passive stance from the regulator, while the European experience has proven that this market cannot develop without active involvement of the government. In this relation, CEO of Narodny Mobilny Telefon put forward an initiative to establish MVNO operators’ Association, which will lobby the rights of the respective market players.
The Forum concluded with a round table, dedicated to moving MNP in Russia from theory to practice, and the first outcomes of this large-scale project. Participants of the discussion – industry professionals, such as VimpelCom’s Director for Analytical Support to GR Alexey Rokotyan, shared their views on interim results of mobile number portability in Russia. They agreed that prior estimates of demand for this service haven’t proven to be true as of yet: in fact, MNP has become a niche service, which still needs follow-on revision, and therefore, hasn’t caught widespread interest yet. “The project was implemented in a rush, there were many failures with application processing in the first days, but towards the end of December 2013, everyone got their act together and the situation stabilized”, said Alexey Vasiliev, First Deputy CEO of Central R&D Institute for Telecommunications (operator of common database of numbers ported).According to him, in summer 2014, some 5,000-6,000 mobile numbers will be ported in Russia every day. And analysts predict that by the end of 2014, more than 1.5 million mobile subscribers will have used the MNP service. Oleg Kuznetsov, Head of the Department of Regulation in Telecommunications at the Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Media reassured that the future of MNP primarily depends on making all associated procedures convenient for subscribers.
