Telecom operators warned that about 1 million smart metering devices could be outlawed and require replacement

So about one million used "smart" electricity meters in housing and communal services may not fit the requirements of the new law, and they will need to be replaced. Russian operators, such as MTS, Megafon, VimpelCom and Tele2, warned about this in their address.

This problem is due to the fact that the foreign standard used in smart devices was not included in the list of permitted, approved at the end of last year, in contrast to the not so widespread domestic standard.

In response to this concern, the Ministry of Finance promises that the permitted list will have a purely informational and recommendatory direction.

What caused the problem

The ubiquitous foreign standard NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) was not added to the list of approved ones for use in smart systems and metering devices. This became clear from a letter from Russian Telecoms addressed to the deputy head of the Ministry of Digital Industry.

So the list was approved by the Ministry of Digital Science literally on the flag of the outgoing year, namely on 12/30/2020. And in this document there is only a Russian analogue called NB-Fi.

For reference. The NB-IoT standard is used to connect devices to a common network, which can use not only classic SIM cards, but also virtual eSIMs.

It differs from such classical standards as GSM, 3G, as well as 4G in significantly lower energy consumption, which makes it possible for devices to work for up to 10 years on a single battery charge. For this reason, this network is the best suited for organizing smart city and private systems.

So all domestic large operators already provide a package of services, according to the now objectionable NB-IoT protocol, literally throughout Russia. And so only in the Central and Ural FDs they may not be suitable according to the standard of the order of one million metering devices, the replacement of which will cost a pretty penny, which may also lead to an increase tariff.

Domestic operators are convinced that the list is strictly mandatory for use, but as the Ministry of Digital Industry said, all this will be of an exclusively recommendatory nature.

A few words about the Russian standard

The NB-Fi standard was created using Russian technology, which was developed by a company like Vaviot. So it (the standard) was approved by Rosstandart in 2019 as the only domestic protocol for the Internet of Things so far.

But, according to the operators, it is less reliable than its foreign counterpart due to the fact that it uses unlicensed frequencies.

The FAS issued a statement that this issue requires detailed consideration, and, as A. Kolesnikov (director of the Internet Association), it is necessary to maintain a balance in which domestic equipment will have access to the market, regardless of the standard. In this case, there will be no violation of competition.

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