You will answer for Wi-Fi. Part 2

A must-read for anyone who provides free Internet access to their customers.

From January 2016, owners of open Wi-Fi networks will be fined for the lack of mandatory user identification. The ban on anonymous Wi-Fi is set out in Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 758 on access to the public Internet. The document entered into force in August last year, but network owners are in no hurry to follow its requirements. Fines are designed to rectify the situation.

Soon, problems with law enforcement and regulatory authorities may arise for those who provide their customers with free access to the network. This will affect cafes, bars, restaurants, hotels, cinemas, sports clubs, bus and train stations, airports, shopping centers and other public institutions that do not fulfill the requirement for mandatory user authorization.

It is proposed to identify users with the help of:

1) an identity document (in the case of collective access points);
2) an account on a public services website;
3) mobile phone numbers.

Network owners who do not implement any of these methods before the beginning of 2016 will face an unpleasant surprise: for providing anonymous Wi-Fi access to individual entrepreneurs, a fine of 5 to 50 thousand rubles is threatened, for legal entities - from 100 to 200 thousand rubles . Repeated violation will cost individual entrepreneurs 10-100 thousand rubles or disqualification for up to three years, and legal entities will pay up to 300 thousand rubles.

Kolomenskaya chain of cafe-shops "MIX-point". Urban Food ”, following the example of the Moscow metro and McDonald's restaurant chain, which were the first to launch the mandatory user authorization process, decided to comply with the law without waiting for sanctions.

Alexander Yamashkin, Head of Software Development , Smart-Soft:

-In order to provide users of public Wi-Fi points with user identification services, we have expanded the functionality of the Traffic Inspector software product and made a special version for establishments that provide free access to the Internet to their customers. The network owner has the right to choose with which of the SMS providers to conclude a cooperation agreement. If the provider that the customer wants to work with is not in the Traffic Inspector list, the developers will add it.

There are two payment options for SMS: the owner of the network and the end user. The cafe has implemented the first method: approximate expenses will amount to 5 thousand rubles per month with an average traffic of 500 people daily. Not so much money, and the owner of an institution who wants to increase its attractiveness through free Wi-Fi can very well afford such expenses. For cafe visitors, authorization will be free. So far, it will occur only by mobile phone number, and in the future, identification will be added through the public services website.

How it will work: when trying to connect to a Wi-Fi network, a cafe visitor will be asked to enter a phone number. An SMS with a confirmation code will come to the indicated number. After entering it, the user will get access to the Internet.

New functionality will allow the network owner:

- comply with the requirements of the law on access to the public Internet and, accordingly, avoid fines;
- protect the data of visitors that they will enter to connect to a free Wi-Fi network from leakage;
- identify users without effort on the part of the administrator: once installing the equipment and setting the storage period for user data, you will no longer have to be introduced into the system - identification will be performed automatically.

Among other things, network owners will be able to recoup their software investments by monetizing a page where users will enter their data. Read more about how to do this in the next post.

How to begin to identify users now, we described on the example of one cafe network. In Russia, there are more than 100 thousand public Wi-Fi points - they are located in institutions of various kinds. After the amount of fines for the lack of mandatory user registration became known, the almost Hamletian “To identify or not to identify?” For most of their owners is no longer a question.

* The start of the publication “You will answer for Wi-Fi” can be read here .

Also popular now: