Cellular operators are removing unlimited internet. Megafon and MTS decided to abandon tariffs with unlimited Internet

In recent days, information about the abolition of unlimited tariffs for mobile Internet has been actively disseminated on the Internet. At the same time, communication services themselves may become more expensive due to a drop in the profitability of the mobile business, “informed sources” note. The team of the Internet project “Be Mobile” decided to understand the situation and turned to Russian telecom operators for clarification.

How did it all start?

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At the end of January, the virtual operator Yota announced the abandonment of completely unlimited Internet traffic on its tariffs for smartphones. And in early February, similar changes were announced by MegaFon, which, by the way, is the owner of Yota.

Telecom and financial market analysts through the media added fuel to the fire. They stated that the trend towards the abolition of unlimited tariffs for mobile Internet in Russia will gain momentum. Experts predict the complete disappearance of unlimited services by the end of 2017.

What will happen to the mobile Internet?

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The Internet project “Be Mobile” asked the largest Russian telecom operators for clarification. Representatives of Yota and MegaFon confirmed the cancellation of unlimited tariffs and options for subscribers who use smartphones. At the same time, they assured that all previously connected unlimited services will continue to be serviced without any restrictions or innovations.

“We have made the product line for smartphones simpler and clearer - new customers of the company will be able to buy a package of minutes and traffic at reduced prices, as well as enable the new “Unlimited mobile applications” option. Thanks to this option, customers don’t have to think about how many megabytes it takes to communicate with friends or watch videos on social networks,” says CEO of Yota Vladimir Dobrynin.

At the same time, the company notes that Yota’s current tariffs for unlimited Internet for modems and routers remain the same. The price here depends on the selected data reception and transmission speed.

MegaFon said that since February the “Unlimited Internet” option has been closed to new connections 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 in it. Those clients who needed this option have already enabled it. For the vast majority of clients, the traffic volumes included in the package are sufficient. In most cases, a large amount of traffic is needed to watch TV, movies and series online. Such clients actively use MegaFon TV, since this service is free for holders of package tariffs, and traffic is not charged,” details the information Svetlana Emelyanova, press secretary of the Ural branch of MegaFon.

Unlimited Internet is closed only for new connections, MegaFon emphasizes. For all subscribers who activated the option before February 1, the option will be valid under the same conditions. At the same time, options that allow you to use mobile Internet while traveling around Russia are valid under the same conditions.

Beeline stated that by now, unlimited services have turned into a marketing tool to attract attention to offers. “In 2016, we did a temporary promotion with unlimited data on postpaid tariffs, from which we ended on January 31, 2017 as planned,” says representative of VimpelCom Inna Rybina.- However, in fact, the actual consumption on unlimited for the vast majority of clients is actually the same as on tariffs with included data traffic packages. In the current situation, they are more of a constraint on the further development of the market: date consumption in total is growing, while both active users and those who use the date a little pay the same - and this is on the general trend of declining voice consumption and the need for operators to invest in infrastructure that can support growing date volumes. Therefore, in our opinion, in the future the market will inevitably come to a change in the pricing model: from the cost of a minute to the cost of a unit of data. This will provide the opportunity to differentiate offerings to customers based on their changing consumption profile.”

MTS declined to answer definitively whether they would cancel unlimited mobile Internet access, noting: “We will analyze the consumption profile of our subscribers in order to offer them optimal tariffs. Our key task is to provide all subscribers with comfortable and convenient services. In order to achieve this, we regularly analyze the consumption profile of our customers. As a result, we currently have a wide range of package tariffs that meet the needs of subscribers - including large packages of Internet traffic, SMS and minutes. And we see that such offers find a high response from our clients, as they allow them to plan their expenses and understand the final cost of communication services.”

The press service of the operator Tele2 stated that they do not plan to abandon the services and tariffs of unlimited mobile Internet and do not intend to reduce the limits on existing offers. “We also do not plan to cancel the tariffication of mobile Internet in national roaming at home region prices,” the company said.

The fifth largest mobile operator MOTIV is also not going to cancel the unlimited tariffication of Internet traffic.

“We do not yet plan to change the terms of existing tariffs or close them for new connections. But we plan to implement several new tariffs. We are sure that our subscribers will like them,” notes Director of Marketing and Sales at MOTIV Ekaterina Khvorostova.

It is worth noting that unlimited mobile Internet access offers a huge number of new opportunities for mobile device owners. Thus, there are often cases when mobile unlimited is used by owners of USB modems and Wi-Fi routers to provide an internal network at home or in the office. Smartphone owners also actively use their gadgets to share the Internet to other devices via Wi-Fi. However, at the same time, operators are faced with a serious increase in traffic volumes. Existing networks are noticeably loaded.

To solve loading problems, operators have two options. The simplest and cheapest is to limit the growth of traffic or make it more expensive for those who download and send a lot of data. More complex and expensive - expanding channels, increasing the number of connection points to the global network, caching frequently used site data.

The first unlimited tariffs for mobile Internet in Russia appeared from Yota, but this operator was considered a niche operator, it did not have many subscribers, and it had little influence on the market. In March 2016, unlimited launched Beeline, in May of the same year, MTS launched unlimited Internet, in June MegaFon succumbed to the trend, and in November - Tele2.

We, as regular users of cellular communication services, over the past couple of years have already gotten used to the fact that cellular companies do not offer us unlimited offers.

And so, by the end of the summer of 2018, MTS, as well as Beeline, like a bolt from the blue, returned options with unlimited Internet access to their line of offers. It is noteworthy that announcements of similar services occurred almost simultaneously.

Unlimited from MTS and Beeline

• Beeline has updated its “EverythingMoy” line, which now includes the option to use mobile Internet in unlimited mode. It is noteworthy that the option is offered free of charge, but it is impossible to activate it remotely (via the Internet, website, personal account, mobile application, USSD codes or SMS messages). To activate, you must contact the company's offices with a corresponding application. However, if you believe the rumors, you don’t have to rush to do this, because already in September Beeline will review the current tariffs, and an “unlimited” option will appear in the line of packages;
• MTS launched a separate Tariff package, which, by the way, I have already paid attention to separately. This package costs subscribers 650 rubles per month, and for that kind of money, the company’s clients, in addition to packages of minutes and messages, can count on unlimited Internet, as well as an unlimited option for certain “Lots of Internet” tariffs. However, there is a fly in the ointment in the phrase “unlimited”, because when using file hosting services, the speed of access to the network can be significantly “cut” (up to 128 kb/s). And it is impossible to “share” such Internet for other devices.

Based on how modern operators are accustomed to copying services and offering their subscribers analogues of the same tariffs and options with different names, it would be reasonable to assume that in the near future other players in the Russian cellular communications market will offer their own tariffs and options with unlimited internet “on board”. At least I'm pretty sure of this.

Unlimited from MegaFon

Just yesterday MegaFon also joined the “arms race”, adding unlimited in the home region on the “Turn On!” series tariffs: “Communicate”, “Watch”, “See +” and “Premium” (though not in all regions). As in the case of “unlimited” from MTS, the use of torrents and the distribution of the Internet to other devices is prohibited.

Tele2 plans for unlimited internet

As for the operator Tele2, its representatives carefully avoid questions regarding the resumption of providing their customers with tariffs with unlimited Internet, citing the fact that the company carefully monitors the market and does not exclude the possibility of introducing such offers.

In addition, Olga Galushina, a representative of the operator, was surprised that operators who were once confident in the irrationality of introducing unlimited tariff plans are now returning such proposals again. I agree with Olga, I remember that operators confidently insisted that users simply do not consume such volumes of Internet, and the average traffic consumption per month is about 6-8 gigabytes for one user.

Unlimited Internet on Yota

I pay attention to the Yota company only so that you, dear reader, can understand that I have not forgotten about it. The fact is that Yota commented briefly on the situation with the return of unlimited tariffs, saying that the company’s plans for further development are not going to be disclosed, nor are they going to comment on the actions of other participants in the cellular communications market.

How the attitude of operators towards unlimited Internet has changed

Having dealt with the plans (or secrets) of operators, I propose to remember what the history of the “relationship” of Russian operators with unlimited Internet in tariff plans looks like.

In 2016, unlimited offers began to actively appear in the tariff lines of most operators, but a year later, at the very beginning of 2017, companies began to withdraw them from circulation. At that time, the main argument of operators was the unprofitability of providing such services - high costs with fairly low user demand.

The companies unanimously stated that the network cannot withstand massive Internet consumption, and users do not really need it - 6-8 gigabytes per month is more than enough for most subscribers.

And now, another year passes, and we see the opposite situation, companies say that subscribers do not want to think about any limits when using mobile Internet, they need complete freedom, which is why unlimited mobile Internet needs to return.

According to experts, in 2019, one subscriber will receive more than 10 gigabytes of traffic monthly, and with such consumption, it will be rational to think about activating an unlimited tariff. But even this is not the decisive factor in favor of the return of unlimited services, but the simplicity and transparency of the conditions of such tariffs. Subscribers do not want to think about any subtleties and loopholes in the characteristics of tariff packages, they simply want to use the services, and here I completely agree. If companies can offer us tariffs with unlimited mobile traffic at an affordable price, even higher than some standard tariff plans, many subscribers will think about using them.

Prospects for mobile unlimited internet

So what are the prospects for the new “coming” of mobile unlimited on the Russian market? Independent analysts say that such services will likely remain on the market for some time. But after some time, operators will inevitably feel a serious load on their networks, which will inevitably lead to changes in conditions; all sorts of restrictions, nuances and subtleties of traffic use will appear.

If we talk about numbers, today unlimited mobile traffic is of interest to only 5% of the user audience, which is about 5 and a half million people. And operators call such users “behind the scenes” as “rockers.” This is understandable, because for the most part, unlimited mobile Internet is needed only by those who really consume a lot of traffic. One has only to go to YouTube and watch video instructions on how to bypass all sorts of operator restrictions on downloading tens of gigabytes from torrent trackers, and it immediately becomes clear who these “downloaders” are.

It is noteworthy that it is precisely a small proportion of such “rockers” that can influence how long the unlimited offers will last this time. Of course, if companies don’t come up with rational ways to deal with such Internet surfers.

And about money...

Finally, I will also note the financial side of the issue of returning offers with unlimited mobile traffic. It is easy to assume that the introduction of such tariffs will not bring significant revenue to the operator, if at all it will bring at least some benefit at first.

Moreover, if you look at the future, such tariffs may even have a negative impact on the future financial statements of all operators in the Russian Federation.

Do not forget about the existence of the Yarovaya Law, according to which providers will be forced to store all traffic that passes through user devices, and this is all additional capacity, additional equipment, additional costs.

Thus, I assume that unlimited offers, if they are implemented by operators, will again not stay on the market for long, and will very soon undergo significant changes, or will again sink into oblivion and end up in the “Archive” section on the official websites of cellular companies.

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 launch of the storage. 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.

June 20, 2017 at 10:25 am

The tariff has done its job, or why operators are defending the refusal of unlimited

• cellular

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) asked operators for the reasons why they refused tariffs for unlimited Internet. If the grounds are unconvincing, the FAS may oblige the operators to return everything as it was. Operators will have to prove both the actual reasons and the absence of coordinated actions to cut the tariff line.

Operators cite network congestion, created by just a few percent of users, as the reason. That is, the majority of users suffer because of the minority who use unlimited. Operators are also now calling unlimited a promotional offer rather than a permanent tariff. What can the FAS take into account and what will it affect?

In the nuances of justification, each of the operators offered their own version. Some said there was little demand for unlimited, others about connecting all their subscribers who were interested in unlimited. There are also contradictions in the statements. Director of VimpelCom Shell Johnsen at the end of 2016 speaks about the very fast loading of 4G networks as the reason for refusing unlimited and the desire to educate the user to pay for each megabyte, and in February 2017 the press secretary of the same VimpelCom Anna Aibasheva states the reason for the refusal is insufficient penetration of smartphones with a 4G module and insufficient transition of users to 4G networks.

The operators’ statement looks clearer if you read its subtext, which may include the following options:

- “we don’t want to spend/don’t have money on network modernization ourselves, especially since part of the money needs to be spent on government initiatives to store traffic”
- “We are sorry that mobile traffic grew 1.5 times over the year, but our income, on the contrary, began to fall. Shareholders won't understand this." Operators' incomes decreased in some quarters of 2016 - something that has not happened for 5-7 years.

The FAS can most likely recognize the first position as respectful, but the second is unlikely.
Because introducing unlimited Internet and canceling it on average in less than a year is more like a marketing technique than an analysis of the impact of new tariffs. And coordinated marketing techniques that mislead the user are precisely the competence of the FAS. Bad moves too. Unsuccessful from the point of view of the operators, of course, who considered the lost profits.

With the first statement about network overload, and especially 3G overload, the FAS is also not sure that it will agree. According to TMT Consulting analysts, unlimited Internet is used mainly on 4G/LTE networks and at night rates, which only slightly loads the networks and also accustoms users to high connection speeds.

All we users can do is wait. Moreover, operators can still “adjust” the return of unlimited service with a higher price for it. And from a marketing point of view, the “introduce unlimited” technique has fulfilled its role. Traffic has grown, 4G networks are actively being loaded, a quarter of new tariff sales are accounted for by unlimited tariffs (according to the director of Tele2). Moreover, in June, the FAS is also considering the case of an agreed price increase by the Big Three specifically for 4G modems. This means that everything is in order with the demand for modern smartphones and traffic is growing not on 3G, but on 4G.

Capacity utilization and the promotional nature of the new tariffs may not convince the FAS, but in general, in developed countries (or rather in the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), only 5 out of 25 European OECD countries offer unlimited mobile Internet. but in these 5 the role of the driver “unlimited” performs well. With its help, mobile data consumption in Finland, Ireland and Switzerland became the highest in Europe. Mobile networks in Finland carry 10% more traffic than in Germany, although the population of Finns is 15 times smaller.

So, in a sense, the use of unlimited as a driver and the rejection of it corresponds to the world practice of European neighbors, but slightly contradicts the official course of the Russian authorities on the digital economy and the volume of traffic in other regions of the world. Another thing is that the FAS is unlikely to greatly influence the situation here. As mentioned above, operators can always raise prices for unlimited services to a prohibitive level. And the abolition of a tariff that no one uses later will not cause any complaints to the FAS. This is a pessimistic option. But there is also an optimistic one. In South Korea, operators also abandoned unlimited in 2011 for similar reasons, but returned it in 2013 due to the subsequent market slowdown. There, a quarter of the audience uses unlimited and eats up 90% of the traffic, but none of the operators are outraged by this.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. We need to travel outside the Moscow Region, or require 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"