Russia may abandon foreign satellite communications

The Ministry of Digital Industry, Roskomnadzor, the Ministry of Economic Development, as well as a special working group may, by March 1, consider the issue “of the need for further use of satellite communication networks on the territory of the Russian Federation under the jurisdiction of foreign states.” This follows from the materials of the State Commission on Radio Frequencies (SCRF), whose meeting is scheduled for January 31.

The proposal still carries the status of a project. The materials of the commission say that the FSB issued a negative opinion on the extension of the allocation of frequencies necessary for connecting to the Internet via foreign satellites using VSAT technology. These frequencies were allocated by the SCRF in 2017 to work with 32 satellites of foreign operators, including the American Intelsat, French Eutelsat, Bermuda’s Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) and others.

The impossibility of renting capacity on foreign satellites will not have a strong impact on the market, agrees the shareholder of the Ka-Internet company Sergey Pekhterev. True, significant problems may arise for the satellite Internet provider SenSat (the RTKomm.ru project), which provides services in the Far East using JCSat-48 and Horizons 3E (Intelsat) satellites, the expert notes. Also, some cellular operators may have problems connecting their equipment to the Internet in hard-to-reach areas via foreign satellites, other market participants say. However, with the development of satellite constellations of the Russian Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Space Communication” (RSCC) and “Gazprom Space Systems”, the dependence on foreign aircraft is steadily decreasing, they add.

Read the details in the exclusive Izvestia article:

“Catch the connection: the Russian Federation can refuse foreign satellites”