After a hurricane in Moscow, telecom operators will be obliged to notify about emergencies

Today, May 31, the Federation Council will submit for consideration a draft law on notification of subscribers through telecom operators in the event of an emergency. This is reported by Vedomosti with reference to the deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Lyudmila Bokova. She also oversees issues related to interaction with telecom operators. Yesterday, the Economic Policy Committee of the Council of the Federation approved the inclusion of this bill on the agenda of the plenary meeting.

The draft law sets points on i in providing users with communication services and broadcasting warning signals and emergency information about the dangers arising from the threat of natural and man-made emergencies. As well as in the conduct of hostilities. According to the representative of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, Dmitry Zakharov, the relevant document has already been adopted by the State Duma in three readings.

According to Side, the order of notification of subscribers will be determined by a separate government decree within 30 days after the adoption of the law. It is already known that the notification of users should be free. Obviously, it should be carried out as soon as possible.

The interlocutors of “Vedomosti”, however, note that it is technically difficult to notify the subscribers of all operators at the same time: the servers simply will not withstand such a load.

Director of Relations with the authorities of MegaFon Dmitry Petrov agrees that it was really necessary to clarify the procedure for interaction between mobile operators and the Emergencies Ministry. Operators and so cooperate with the Emergencies Ministry, said Tele2 representative Konstantin Prokshin, it is important to give an explicit definition of the situations in which operators will be required to send SMS according to the law, and a clear procedure for interacting with the Emergencies Ministry.

“The natural disaster in Moscow has shown that the population is in dire need of notification of such disasters,” explained Alexey Maiorov, first deputy chairman of the committee on economic policy.

According to him, the law will provide the population with information on possible natural or man-made disasters through all possible channels - by means of mobile communications, radio and television broadcasting.

May 29 in the capital was a strong hurricane that caused serious losses and destruction. Many Moscow residents were not promptly notified of the impending hurricane and were on the street during a disaster.

An orange hazard level was declared (high probability of a strong natural disaster). Ministry of Emergency Situations warned residents through its website:

at noon on May 29, 2017 on the portal of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation for Moscow an emergency warning was posted by the FSBI Central UGMS that from 13:30 on May 29 to 7:00 on May 30, heavy rain, thunderstorm, hail and wind are expected in Moscow gusts up to 22 m / s.

However, not all Moscow residents visit the site of the department. Of the big four mobile operators, only Megafon sent out mass SMS messages about bad weather. According to the employees of the two operators, they received a message from the Emergencies Ministry during the storm, closer to its completion - at 16.30 Moscow time. Some operators claim that they did not receive anything from the MES. Not a single operator agreed to tell Vedomosti how many SMS messages notifying of the coming storm, he sent and at what time.

As a result, the Emergencies Ministry and the Moscow mobile operators began to accuse each other of poor-quality warning of the hurricane.

Regional departments of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation are obliged to warn people about emergency situations. The relevant amendments to the law “On the protection of the population from emergency situations” were adopted in 2013.