Public Wi-Fi traffic in the center of Moscow has increased sharply amid mobile internet restrictions. In the first two weeks, the number of connections quadrupled and reached 23 million sessions, and the total traffic volume reached 54.7 thousand gigabytes, which is 3.5 times more than a year earlier.
The growth was recorded by analysts at Hot-WiFi, which serves about 4,000 points - from cafes to shopping centers. According to estimates, establishments with Wi-Fi received an additional 3.4 million visitors, and their revenue could have grown by about 6 billion rubles in just two weeks.
Against the background of problems with mobile communications, public networks have actually become a temporary infrastructure for the city: the availability of Wi-Fi began to directly affect the choice of location. At the same time, in the first days of restrictions, businesses tied to the mobile Internet, on the contrary, lost money - according to industry estimates, losses could amount to 3 to 5 billion rubles in a few days.
Transport hubs also felt an additional load: at Moscow railway stations, users connected to Wi-Fi tens of thousands of times. Rostelecom also noted an increase in demand for fixed Internet - the number of applications with routers increased by 40%.
Experts call the current situation transitional: access to Wi-Fi has become easier, but problems with authorization remain - SMS with codes may not arrive, and calls do not always go through. Alternatives include logging in through "Gosuslugi", bank IDs, or reconnecting to already saved networks.
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