Mikhail Mishustin: “The strategy for the industry development sets goals until 2035. The plan for its implementation has been signed. We are talking about creating conditions for building an up-to-date secure infrastructure, introducing advanced solutions that are necessary to provide communication services to people, businesses, and government agencies in all regions of the country.”
Mikhail Mishustin holds a strategic session on the development of communications industry
Mikhail Mishustin holds a strategic session on the development of communications industry
Mikhail Mishustin holds a strategic session on the development of communications industry
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues.
Today we will discuss the development of the communications industry, which largely shapes the business and social activity, dynamics of the economic growth of industrial enterprises and the labour market. Modern technologies make it possible to achieve significant results in medicine, science, education, the transport complex and many other sectors, which improves the quality of life of people throughout the country.
The President has set the task of providing households with access to high-speed internet in the next five years.
The strategy for the industry development sets goals until 2035. The plan for its implementation has been signed. We are talking about creating conditions for building an up-to-date secure infrastructure, introducing advanced solutions that are necessary to provide communication services to people, businesses, and government agencies in all regions of the country.
This initiative will provide internet users with connection speeds exceeding 1 Gbit/s. The goal is to ensure that modern mobile networks are deployed across all populated areas – where the majority of our citizens live – so that service quality remains consistently high, regardless of location.
This work is in full swing. Last year, capital investment by private stakeholders increased by more than 25 percent compared to the previous period, reaching 500 billion roubles. These funds have helped expand infrastructure around major cities and in the private sector, enabling more households to gain access to high-speed internet. As a result, 39 million subscribers now use home internet services, with most enjoying speeds of 100 Mbit/s or higher. According to experts, this figure surpasses the equivalent indicators in some Eurozone countries.
Efforts to eliminate the digital gap are also ongoing. A fibre-optic cable stretching over 2,000 kilometres along the floor of the Bering Sea, from Kamchatka to Chukotka, has enabled all Russian regions to connect to the national telecommunications network. This fibre-optic backbone now supplements satellite coverage with a reliable, high-speed channel unaffected by weather conditions.
In addition, the number of socially significant institutions connected to communication networks has grown to over 100,000 facilities in the past five years alone, including schools, lyceums, and colleges. These advancements allow students to access digital libraries, video lectures, and scientific resources, helping to enrich their educational experience.
Ours is a big country. So, it is not technically possible to lay fibre-optic lines everywhere to ensure evenness of services. Therefore, we should focus on building up the orbital constellation that will help to provide a rapid-access and inexpensive internet in the remotest territories, including motor and rail roads.
This is the key area of focus. We must do everything that is necessary to make satellite internet available across the country in two years time. This is extremely important not only for organising services in small populated localities but also for developing the Arctic areas and the Northern Sea Route. What we must do in this regard is to launch mass production of spacecraft. The Data Economy and Digital Transformation of the State national project has set aside almost 107 billion roubles for these purposes.
We should concentrate our efforts on upgrading the geostationary constellation that makes it possible to transmit the TV signal over vast territories and provide major infrastructure facilities with communication capabilities.
It goes without saying that home-made technological solutions should be used in the process.
The President has noted that we must possess our own competences and the entire technological chain for producing equipment in spheres of critical importance for our country’s development.
For this purpose, the Government is implementing in a systemic way a number of state support measures. Over the previous two years alone, we allocated 8 billion roubles to subsidise innovative solutions. Due to this, an entirely domestic basic station supporting advanced communications standards has been developed.
It is necessary to speed up its mass production to the maximum degree to build new-generation mobile networks in the regions, where the speed and quality of data transmission will not be inferior to home internet.
There are results in other areas as well. Russian equipment has been developed for use in organising home wireless networks to receive satellite and IP television programmes, among other things.
It is important to expand the output of these devices with account taken of the variety of telecommunications services, which is of extreme significance for achieving national technological leadership.
Colleagues,
Today, we will discuss in detail the situation in the industry, including how the strategy we have accepted is being implemented and whether the existing measures are sufficient for meeting the challenges faced by this sphere.
