OREANDA-NEWS. On 31 July 2009 was announced, that technology of IP telephony is developing rapidly and is becoming increasingly popular all over the world. We don’t think it is appropriate to prohibit or put limitations on the existing services. Vice versa, being one of the largest Russian companies, we look into the future and accept that IP telephony market will be a great success in Russia, and it will become more and more interesting for the Russian customers due to its advantages over traditional telephony.

“Innovation is the only possible way of development for such company as ours. Technical progress is the basis of the telecommunication industry, it cannot be ignored, and it makes no sense to hinder it. It is obvious that the industry’s future is in broadband Internet access and integration of mobile communication with Internet services”, says Peter Lidov, MegaFon’s PR Director.  He adds that “just like other large telecom market players all over the world, we make significant investments in new technologies and are interested in being able to provide in Russia similar services that are currently being provided by foreign operators”.

Technologies are obviously developing faster than regulation. Many countries of the world are still looking for efficient regulatory model for Internet telephony (VoIP ), and it has not been found yet.  The task force of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) needs to deal with a serious challenge: to create an efficient regulatory regime that will become a framework for the VoIP market to be formed. We are willing to participate in this work, as being the leading Russian operator we are interested in having clear and transparent rules for VoIP services provision. 

At the RUIE meeting on the 21st of July 2009 MegaFon’s representatives were offered to join the task force which will prepare a proposal on improvement of the industry regulations related to IP-telephony. MegaFon has assigned its experts to participate in that work as we believe it to be promising and essential for further development of the company’s business.