When mobile Internet will become completely unlimited. Why operators refuse unlimited Internet
The big three swindlers of mobile operators have agreed among themselves to cancel unlimited Internet tariffs. The reason is that the toad is strangling that the Internet is sold for cheap when it can be sold for dearly.
It is completely irrational that someone can download 60-70 GB, load the network, and at the same time use cheap unlimited or almost unlimited tariffs. This is a question that the entire industry needs to address.
CEO of VimpelCom Shell Morten Johnsen
The situation is similar in Megafon and MTS. Companies have either already removed unlimited plans or are preparing to do so in the near future. By the way, Yota too.
The toothless antimonopoly service traditionally did not react in any way to the suspiciously synchronous deterioration of service conditions in all companies at once. Probably, cartel agreements are no longer of interest to the FAS.
Mobile unlimited. We remember. We love you. We mourn.
Questions and answers about unlimited
Why was unlimited internet cancelled?
Because mobile operators entered into a monopoly conspiracy. They agreed at the same time to abandon unlimited data plans in order to impose less profitable tariff plans with per-megabyte payment on customers. In civilized countries they are actively fighting against antimonopoly crimes, but for some reason in Russia the Federal Antimonopoly Service did not see any violations. It’s probably not just that I didn’t see it.
When will Beeline take away unlimited
The decision has already been finalized. But specific dates were not specified. Leading mobile analysts believe this could happen soon.
Where did the unlimited Internet on Beeline go?
It was cancelled. The hucksters from the Big Three conspired and, for the sake of profit, at the same time increased the tariffs in a direction unfavorable for clients. Now you will have to pay for each megabyte, which means that spending on cellular communications will increase by 1.5-3 times.
Experts and operators themselves explain.
To bookmarks
At the beginning of 2017, federal cellular operators abandoned tariffs with unlimited Internet, ceasing to connect new subscribers to them. However, in August 2018, MTS and VimpelCom (Beeline brand) almost simultaneously returned offers with unlimited Internet.
- MTS launched the Tariffishche tariff, in which for 650 rubles per month (price for Moscow) the subscriber receives unlimited Internet, 500 minutes of outgoing calls and 500 SMS. But there are limitations: for example, when using file-sharing networks, the speed is reduced to 128 Kb/s, and you cannot distribute the Internet to other devices. When traveling around Russia, the subscriber will be able to use only 500 MB per day at maximum speed.
- Beeline has added an unlimited Internet option to the “EverythingMoy” tariff line - the option is free, but to connect it the subscriber must contact the operator’s salon. In September, Beeline plans to launch a separate tariff with unlimited Internet.
Other federal operators have not yet announced plans to return unlimited Internet to their tariffs, but telecom analysts surveyed by the site expect that competitors will soon respond with similar offers.
“Cellular operators are characterized by a herd instinct, and most of the large-scale steps of some market players are quickly picked up by competitors,” says Leonid Konik, general director of the Comnews group of companies.
Megafon is considering the possibility of launching tariffs with unlimited Internet traffic in the future, said operator representative Olga Kuzicheva, but did not speak in more detail about the plans. She recalled that Megafon has a “Turn on” tariff line with unlimited traffic for some applications: VKontakte, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, TamTam, Viber and others.
At the same time, we do not have hidden conditions: we do not reduce the speed when a certain traffic limit is reached, we do not introduce additional restrictions when traveling around Russia, and we do not prohibit the distribution of the Internet from mobile devices.
Olga Kuzicheva
Representative of Megafon
Tele2 representative Olga Galushina did not directly answer the question about the operator’s plans to return offers with unlimited Internet. “We are closely monitoring the market situation,” she said. Galushina noted that Tele2 subscribers can transfer Internet traffic unused for a month to the next month, the operator does not impose restrictions on the amount of traffic consumed, and traffic in instant messengers and social networks is not taken into account.
The reasons for the return of market colleagues to practices that they publicly recognized as ineffective are curious, indicating recently that clients simply do not need such volumes of traffic.
Olga Galushina
Tele2 representative
The Yota press service told the site that they do not disclose their plans and do not comment on the actions of other market players.
What has changed in a year
Federal mobile operators have consistently announced the abandonment of tariffs with unlimited Internet traffic in the period from January to April 2017. Unlimited offers lasted only a year. Operators refuse them due to high costs and low demand from subscribers.
“Unlimited mobile networks as a mass service is impossible with existing technologies. Operator networks are not enough for mass unlimited consumption of the Internet, which involves transferring large volumes of traffic,” Konstantin Ankilov, CEO of TMT Consulting, explained to the site in March 2017.
Now representatives of MTS and VimpelCom explain the return of unlimited offers by demand from the audience.
Our clients live in a digital environment and do not want to think about Internet limits; they perceive them as artificial restrictions. Responding to this trend and customer requests, we have returned unlimited Internet.
Alexey Merkutov
MTS representative
Unlimited tariffs are interesting for a certain part of clients, because, in their opinion, they additionally insure against possible exceeding the limits of the package on the tariff and provide double control over expenses. We satisfy the request of this part of the audience.
Anna Aibasheva
Representative of VimpelCom
The volume of traffic downloaded by subscribers has increased over the past year and a half, as noted by telecom analysts surveyed on the site. If in the spring of 2017 users downloaded 5-6 GB of data per month via the mobile Internet, now this figure has reached 7-8 GB. By the end of 2019, the volume of consumed traffic will reach 10 GB, Telecom Daily CEO Denis Kuskov expects.
More than a year has passed since the cancellation of unlimited tariffs and options, and for many in the market, MTS’s step came as a surprise, says iKS-Consulting analyst Maxim Savvatin. In his opinion, the initiative is aimed at strengthening its position, since unlimited offers a competitive advantage.
By returning unlimited tariffs, operators expect to retain subscribers and transfer highly profitable clients of other operators to them, although this will not lead to a radical change in market positions, analysts believe.
The former growth of cellular operators - both in subscribers and in money - has not only stopped, but sometimes has negative values. The reasons are the absence of unconnected subscribers in the country, the presence of four main players in the market, which leads to price wars with already low tariffs, as well as the growing popularity of OTT services like Telegram or WhatsApp, which deprive operators of income from basic services.
Taking into account the fact that in Russia it has been possible for several years to change a mobile operator while maintaining the same number, operators are trying their best to retain subscribers. The limits on Internet traffic introduced by operators in 2017 were negatively perceived by users, and by returning unlimited, cellular companies are trying to regain the loyalty of subscribers.
In addition, the emergence of new virtual operators (MVNOs), which mostly operate on the Tele2 network and offer unlimited Internet tariffs, is forcing the Big Three players to act with an eye on MVNOs.
Leonid Konik
General Director of Comnews Group
Another argument for the return of unlimited tariffs is their simplicity and clarity for customers, says Savvatin. In his opinion, unlimited Internet always attracts subscribers, so it is easy to sell. The analyst is confident that other operators will soon also present similar tariffs or options.
Telecom Daily CEO Denis Kuskov, on the contrary, considers the return to unlimited tariffs harmful for the market: the technical capabilities of operators have not changed and a small number of subscribers with unlimited Internet will again heavily load the network. Operators do not receive additional income from them, the analyst emphasizes.
At one time, operators missed the mark by launching unlimited tariff plans. I don't know why they thought it would be justified now.
In my opinion, given that the average user pumps out about 6-7 GB of traffic per month, it is a much more correct option to leave package tariffs with the ability to purchase additional traffic. Then the subscriber himself would use the Internet for its intended purpose, and other users would not experience problems due to the high load on the network.
Denis Kuskov
CEO of Telecom Daily
Prospects for the existence of unlimited tariffs and the fight against “rockers”
How long operators will sell tariffs and options with an unlimited tariff primarily depends on the load on the networks, says Maxim Savvatin from iKS-Consulting: “If there is not a big dependence on the load on the networks, then the unlimited will last for some time. But as soon as operators feel a high load, they will change the conditions.”
Much depends on the reaction of users, and it is too early to predict the end date of unlimited offers, says a representative of VimpelCom: “As the experience of past years shows, if unlimited offers appear on the market, they appear with all operators; if they leave, then with all operators. This is a market phenomenon."
According to TMT Consulting, there are now 265 million SIM cards in Russia. There are only 110 million real subscribers in the country, everything else is second smartphones, tablets and other devices, says Kuskov. In his opinion, unlimited Internet is of interest to only 5% of subscribers, that is, 5.5 million users. The head of Telecom Daily calls them “rockers.”
“You can fight the downloaders in different ways: for example, change the tariff plan or limit the speed after downloading a certain amount of traffic,” says Kuskov. He expects that MTS may change the terms of the new tariff when a certain number of subscribers connect to it.
Previously, a small part of users actually created a load on the network and limited access to the Internet for other subscribers, downloading significant amounts of traffic and distributing the Internet to several devices, an MTS representative admits. The restrictions in the new tariff made it possible to solve this problem, he claims.
Leonid Konik from Comnews also does not see the risk of increasing the load on operator networks. In his opinion, the widespread distribution of free Wi-Fi in transport, shopping centers, airports and other public places allows operators to relieve the cellular network. At the same time, the expert noted that the actions of operators are not always logical.
In the last couple of years, Russian cellular companies have been characterized by illogical and nervous actions, such as the closure of Megafon six months after the launch of the virtual operator VK Mobile, the launch of the Veon platform by Beeline, which the new head of the company called unsuccessful, or the purchase of an e-ticket service by MTS .
Therefore, I would not be surprised if after some time operators close unlimited tariffs again.
Leonid Konik
General Director of Comnews Group
Financial implications
The immediate return of unlimited tariffs will not affect operators’ revenue, but in the long term it will have a negative impact, warns Maxim Savvatin from iKS-Consulting.
If traffic consumption grows and MTS competitors offer something in return, then, of course, we should expect a negative impact, since with the advent of unlimited tariffs for high-income subscribers, there is no longer any incentive to consume large traffic packages that could bring more revenue to the operator.
For example, a user who downloads 20-30 GB per month and pays, say, a thousand rubles, will see a 50% lower price tag from his own operator, and sooner or later he will switch to this tariff. What's the point of continuing to pay for traffic packages if you can use the Internet cheaper?
But we can talk about this already next year - the proposal will not affect the indicators of the second half of 2018. The negative impact can be corrected by the high cost of unlimited Internet: 650 rubles in Moscow is already a fairly expensive tariff. This is one of the main differences from the previous advent of unlimited.
At these rates, many users may not be as proactive in upgrading to such offers, and the negative impact on revenue in the short term will not be as severe as after the introduction of unlimited tariffs in 2016.
Maxim Savvatin
Analyst at iKS-Consulting
Tariffs with unlimited Internet traffic may lead to an increase in operators’ costs for storing subscriber data, a Megafon representative said in the spring of 2017.
Average consumption on unlimited tariffs is comparable to consumption on package tariffs, says VimpelCom representative Anna Aibasheva: “We do not expect explosive growth in consumption on unlimited.” MTS also does not expect an increase in the volume of downloaded traffic.
“The Yarovaya Law” is a big problem for operators, but the return of unlimited tariffs will not bring additional hassle, since the volume of consumed traffic is growing even without them, Kuskov is sure. The analyst is more concerned about a possible increase in prices for communication services due to the need for operators to increase storage volumes every year for five years.
From October 1, 2018, operators and Internet providers store all user traffic, including calls, text messages and transferred files. The storage capacity for each user must correspond to the volume of his traffic 30 days before the storage launch. Every year, operators must increase storage capacity by 15% for five years.
How many operators are there on “Yarovaya’s law”:
- MTS plans to allocate 60 billion rubles for data storage in the next five years.
- VimpelCom estimated its expenses at 45 billion rubles over five years, Megafon - at 40 billion rubles over five years.
- Tele2 CEO Sergei Emdin costs the operator “tens of billions of rubles” over three years.
It’s already been exactly a year since MTS canceled its cheapest metered internet. Remember the one?
Apparently, March-April for MTS are months of tightening the screws. Because now one of my favorite tariffs has come under the knife - MTS-unlimited. Appearing a little in May 2016, it was practically ideal for a person who does not really need mobile communications, but at the same time needs unlimited Internet. At the same time, at first there were no special restrictions on it - go with it to any (well, almost) corner of the country, distribute it via wi-fi. In general, beauty, not tariff. Half a year later, the tariff was thoroughly cut: they introduced a paid Wi-Fi distribution, and began to charge money when traveling to other regions (does not apply to those who connected before October 25, 2016), thus turning it into “Unlimited with roaming and tethering.” Fortunately, with the free distribution we are, because it is not MTS that decides exactly how I should use the Internet I bought after it arrived on my device.
But after another half a year, MTS decided that it was time to finally close the shop. And so, on March 27, the old unlimited service was sent to the archive with the name Smart Unlimited 052016, and in its place a new unlimited service appeared, which in fact is not unlimited at all, because on the Internet it is limited to 10 GB of traffic per month, if used it every month, and twenty - . Well, that is. in fact, the volumes are generally ridiculous, which on my desktop computer disappear in a couple of days, a maximum of a week.
Let's see in this simple article whether it is possible to find any adequate replacement for it? Yes, I am writing, of course, about my home region - Moscow and the Moscow region, although for others it should be the same, only cheaper.
First of all, it should be noted that MTS decided not to limit itself to this meanness: a similar “Transformishe” tariff was also cut from both the official website and the MTS online store, which also included unlimited Internet, and differed only by 80 rubles in higher price ( 650 rubles), and for this - an extra two hundred minutes included, i.e. 400, not 200, as in unlimited.
The most interesting thing is that it is not left even in the archived tariffs. What this could mean is absolutely not clear, but I can refer those interested in the history of this tariff to the wonderful article by Sergei Potresov.
So what remains for us? Well, firstly, until April 13, 2017, you can subscribe to a SMART+ tariff with unlimited Internet service. At a cost of 250 rubles per week, and taking into account that we have 9 weeks in two months, it turns out 1125 rubles per month, which is exactly twice as expensive as the defunct Unlimited (by the way, we don’t consider the smart top at all, it’s three times more expensive). Unfortunately, according to insider information, with a 90% probability, this option will be removed from there in two weeks. (Upd. - as expected, removed).
Secondly, look for the treasured SIM cards with the old unlimited, I assume that in the next month they can still be found on sale, or bought second-hand.
Well, the last option - the most attractive in price, but unfortunately, limited in speed and geography - is to buy a second SIM card with the Connect-4 tariff and the connected “Internet 4 Mbit/s” option, I also wrote about them in my first, comparing with unlimited
Its advantages are that:
- It seems they are not going to close it yet, unlike Smart+
- The cost is more adequate compared to SMART+ - 750 rubles versus 1125 (of course, 180 rubles worse than unlimited, but at least something)
- Distribution via Wi-Fi to other devices is not limited, i.e. no need to dance with a tambourine around fixing/changing TTL
- Although slow, at 512 kbps, there are torrents
Well, among the minuses:
- The need to take it with a separate SIM card in addition to the existing one (read - you need a dual-SIM phone), because 4 rubles per minute even to your own network, and at the same time - absolutely without included minutes - is horror-horror. However, if you buy it specifically for unlimited Internet, then it’s okay, unlimited internet was often used in this mode
- Speed is limited - only 4 Mbit/s
- You can’t take it outside of Moscow and the Moscow region - they start charging 1,500 rubles a month in addition to 750 rubles for a subscription (read - you have to look for the same in each region)
So here's a quick summary.
- Don’t forget that Megafon and Beeline have also unanimously abandoned unlimited (in terms of the Internet) tariffs for all new connections, and crawling to them doesn’t seem to save (and remembering how Beeline unilaterally first reduced my archived an unlimited tariff up to 50 GB, and then - up to 30 - is not an option at all). We are talking about Moscow and the region, in the regions with, for example - I don’t know, they say that this could be an option. Oh, well, you can also take it for a tablet or computer, but there are different dances with a tambourine.
- If you need Internet for the office, you are ready to put up with a download of half a megabyte per second, or if you do not travel outside the Moscow region, we take Connect 4.
- We need to travel outside the Moscow Region, or we need high Internet speeds - we are looking for the old unlimited service, or we are trying to connect SMART+ in time. Unfortunately, by May, i.e. During the summer season, both are unlikely to be available.
It's a pity, of course, a great pity. RIP, Unlimited!
P.S. There is another option, but not available to everyone. So to speak, a non-public Internet option, an invitation to connect to which comes via SMS, but sometimes you can connect just like that. Unlimited with speed limited to 1 Mbit/s. But for only 200 rubles a month. In principle, this is enough even to watch YouTube, although not in full HD, of course. In general, if you are satisfied with these conditions, you can try to connect to it (all other options like Bit/Super Bit must be disabled, and there must be at least 200 rubles in the account). Here is a link to this tariff “Internet 1 Mbit/s (month). NP"
Last weekend, Megafon subscribers learned from the company’s Twitter that the operator had decided to abandon tariffs with unlimited Internet. This raised questions from account subscribers, to which representatives of the operator responded that the option was being closed due to low demand.
“Over the past month, we have seen an extremely small number of new connections, which on the scale of a federal operator essentially means a complete lack of interest,” Megafon said in its tweets.
Representatives of the operator confirmed this decision to Gazeta.Ru. “The changes apply only to new connections. For everyone who activated the option before February 1, the option will continue to be valid,” said Megafon press secretary Yulia Dorokhina.
The absolute majority of clients are satisfied with the traffic volumes included in the package, the company believes.
Yota, associated with Megafon, was the first to launch the flywheel of refusal from unlim. It is noteworthy that when they entered the voice services market 2.5 years ago, they differed from competitors in providing a similar service.
However, at the end of 2016, the mobile virtual operator announced its decision to remove the unlimited Internet package from its product line at the very beginning of 2017.
The operator announced a new business approach in January, assuring active users of instant messengers and social networks that they have nothing to fear: Yota, having removed universal unlimited traffic, proposed using it in individual applications.
In particular,
The offer applies to Facebook, Instagram, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Telegram, Viber and WhatsApp.
The refusal is due to the fact that operators have not been able to learn how to make money on such a service, Denis Kuskov, general director of the information and analytical agency TelecomDaily, expressed his opinion in a conversation with Gazeta.Ru.
To resolve the situation, telecom corporations could make unlimited Internet an exclusive service with a high price tag. “But then subscribers would not use it en masse, preferring a Wi-Fi connection to download heavy files,” the analyst argues.
Kuskov is confident that the process of abandoning unlimited Internet that began with Yota “has gone on and will affect all operators,” and not just anyone in particular.
His words are confirmed by published in "Vedomosti" information that MTS is also considering closing its “Unlimited” service in the near future.
Company press secretary Dmitry Solodovnikov, commenting on this information, only noted that the operator will “analyze the consumption profile of subscribers in order to offer them optimal tariffs.”
Black and yellow fortune teller
According to Denis Kuskov, there are not many users who download large amounts of data from their smartphone using wireless broadband Internet (WBA). So, according to TelecomDaily statistics,
only 2-5% of users are truly active consumers of heavy content and need unlimited traffic.
In general, per subscriber, according to calculations by the analytical company, on average there is 3.5 GB of data. “This figure is far from unlimited,” sums up Kuskov.
At the same time, operators do not see much income from such “hardcore” users, but they spend significant resources on these 2-5% of subscribers who load the network. “Base stations can serve a certain number of subscribers at a certain time,” explains the publication’s interlocutor.
The general director of VimpelCom (Beeline brand), Shell Morten Johnsen, spoke about curtailing the idea of promoting tariffs with an unlimited Internet package, which never had time to be fully realized. Such measures, as the head of the company emphasized,
discipline subscribers who consume large volumes of traffic in conditions of high network congestion.
VimpelCom did not disclose plans to close such tariffs, but made it clear that the attitude towards Unlim has not changed.
“Unlimited plans have essentially turned into a marketing tool to attract attention to offers, but in fact, the real consumption of the vast majority of customers is actually the same as on tariffs with included data traffic packages,” the head of the company’s press service told Gazeta.Ru. Anna Aibasheva.
Less discounter
The head of the strategic communications department of Tele2, Konstantin Prokshin, told Gazeta.Ru back in December that the company does not yet plan to abandon unlimited tariffs. “This offer helps us attract new subscribers,” a representative of the operator explained then.
At the same time, at the end of January the company made major changes to its positioning. Tele2 CEO Sergei Emdin announced the abandonment of the “hard discount” policy at the presentation of the new strategy on January 25. “If previously we were the operator with the lowest prices, now we want to be the operator for those who do not want to overpay,” he emphasized.
In addition, Tele2 is going to transfer unused minutes and traffic to the next month. This decision was made taking into account the operator’s statistics showing that about 80% of subscribers do not have time to fully use all their allotted call minutes, SMS and Internet packages.
Kuskov recalled that in Russia the cost of communication services remains lower than in Europe and the USA.
“Our tariffs are inexpensive, the quality of the operators is good. Not without flaws, of course, but at a high level,”
— the analyst praised domestic players in the telecom market.
The process of “packaging” tariffs, according to the head of TelecomDaily, did not come just like that: in the current difficult economic conditions, operators are trying to earn every penny by raising prices for certain options.
“They will not raise prices sharply, but operators strive to provide more services for more money through packages and, accordingly, increase ARPU. The second task is to increase the number of smartphones connected to the mobile Internet,” Kuskov predicts.
TelecomDaily data shows that only 50-60% of Russian subscribers access the network using the services of cellular operators. The goal is to raise the bar to 70-80% of device owners connected to the mobile Internet.
