Since June 1, it has become more expensive for communication operators in Russia to obtain new telephone numbers. The duty for one number immediately doubled. This happened for the first time since 2014. The Ministry of Digital Development notified communication operators about the increase in duties for numbering resources back in early May.
Now the state duty for one telephone number has increased from 50 to 100 rubles. The duty for the mobile network identification code has also doubled: previously it was 3.25 million rubles, now it is 6.5 million rubles.
Before this, duties on numbering resources in Russia were increased in 2014. At that time, the fee for one telephone number was raised from 20 to 50 rubles, and for the mobile network identification code - from 2 million to 3.25 million rubles.
Dmitry Petrov, CEO of the operator "Komfortel", explained that operators have already been allocated more numbers than there is demand for services. Therefore, the new increase will most affect those who have run out of numbers and need to get new ones. In his opinion, this change will not have a serious impact on the communication market.
Tatyana Shramko, Director for work with operators at the cloud telephony service "Novofon", said that after the news about the increase in duties, operators had to think about auditing and long-term planning for purchasing numbers. They need to take into account not only the future growth of the subscriber base, but also development plans in other regions.
According to Shramko, numbering resources are usually purchased in volumes from 500 to 1 thousand numbers to start in a region, and then from 10 thousand numbers and more. If in the first case the difference between 25 thousand and 50 thousand rubles may not seem so big, then for large purchases the difference is already more noticeable: 500 thousand rubles and 1 million rubles is a completely different scale.
She explained that with erroneous planning, the operator can lose money. For example, if they buy too many numbers before the price increase, but then cannot sell them. Or vice versa - if they do not have time to buy the required volume in advance and later will be forced to pay at new rates.
