Transferring cables from heaven to earth could cost Moscow broadband operators 6 billion rubles a year

    The Moscow government forbids the Association of Administrative and Technical Inspections of Moscow to issue permits to Moscow operators for laying overhead lines of communication and power transmission.

    DepTEH really advocates the transfer of overhead lines underground, but without forcing operators to do so - this position has been agreed with the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), says Mikhail Balabanov, First Deputy Head of the Department of Fuel and Energy Economy of Moscow (DepTEH). According to him, a ban on laying new air lines can be imposed only on some highways. We are talking about highways, which are now being reconstructed under the My Street improvement program. According to the program, in 2015 it is planned to reconstruct more than 40 streets. A new cable sewer will be built there: it will be enough not only for all existing operators, free resources should be enough for decades, Balabanov claims.

    According to an employee of one of the operators, approximately 1,000 kilometers of air lines are built annually in Moscow and the surrounding territories. He estimates the cost of building 1 kilometer of sewage at 5 million rubles. According to a top manager of another company, now the construction of 1 kilometer of underground cable infrastructure in Moscow with the relocation of previously constructed communications costs from 6 million rubles.

    How officials can prohibit the construction of new air lines, if the current building codes and rules allow this, the Director General of Iskratelecom Alkhas Mirzabekov is surprised . Moscow operators are not against moving cables underground - for the past three years they have been doing this in new buildings, he saidhe is to Vedomosti. Now fixed and mobile communications services in Russia and Moscow are among the cheapest in the world and, to keep them that way, the tariff for renting sewers should not be higher than 1.5–2 rubles per 1 meter per month, Mirzabekov believes. So far, these rates are much higher.

    According to the representative of the Akado group of companies Denis Rychka, Akado lays communication lines by air only where there is no technical ability to lay the cable underground, mainly in the center of the city. Out of more than 23 thousand kilometers of Akado fiber-optic communication lines, only 5 thousand kilometers were laid by air. Akado drew FAS attention to the actions of such monopolistic operators as MGTS: MGTS sets different tariffs for reservation and operation of sewerage for budget organizations and commercial structures. In addition, it sets monopolistically high prices for access to communications.

    The city authorities should compensate for the costs of purchasing and laying a new cable, as well as partially compensate for the cost of renting sewers, the representative of Rostelecom Andrei Polyakov is sure . Such decisions of officials may jeopardize the further development of broadband access in Moscow, the representative of VimpelCom, Anna Aibasheva , fears .

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