The following blog was submitted by WBA member Enforta. This is a rough English translation of the original Russian-language article, which can be found here.
National fixed-line operator JSC “ER-Telecom Holding” (ERTH) announced the launch of the city Wi-Fi network in three districts of St. Petersburg. Previously, the network covers only the Nevsky Prospect, now its coverage radius is 3.5 square meters. km, and by May of this year, covering the area will grow almost threefold, the operator promises. The customer is the Committee for Information and Communication, which is only in 2016 to invest in the city Wi-Fi almost 45 million rubles. Currently, the city has no plans to monetize services to provide Wi-Fi, respectively, return on the project in question.
ERTH launched in three districts of the city – Central, Petrograd and Vasileostrovsky – an open Wi-Fi network (displayed on mobile devices like SPb Free Wi-Fi), the operator reported the press service of yesterday. The network established by order of the Information and Communication Committee, which concluded a state contract with LLC “Prestige-Internet” (included in ERTH) to provide access to Wi-Fi to residents and guests of St. Petersburg, specified in the committee. They note that this network is also planned to be used for video streaming city video surveillance system, “which should positively affect the level of the crime situation of these areas.”
Currently, the radius of coverage of urban Wi-Fi is 3.5 square meters. km. The network covers areas not fully, but only the part where the high tourist traffic, noted in ERTH. According to the operator, it is all the Nevsky Prospekt, a large part of the Central region, almost the entire island of Petrograd, the eastern part of Vasilyevsky Island, the island of the Apothecary. Prior to May 1, 2016 the operator, under the terms of the contract with the committee, is to expand the radius of the city Wi-Fi network to 10.5 square meters. km. Note that before the launch of the city Wi-Fi in the three areas it covers solely Nevsky Prospekt.
ERTH ensures output speed Internet access for each user of at least 1 Mbit / s. At the end of January to the network has been connected to more than 120 thous. Of unique devices, through which more than 1.7 TB of traffic has been transferred. “Creating together with the Government of St. Petersburg Wi-Fi-network – one of the most important factors in the development of the digital economy in the city”, – said President Andrew ERTH Kuziaev.
The cost of the contract between the city and the structure of ERTH for 2016 amounts to more than 44.8 million rubles. The press service of ERTH explain that the city buys the service of the service model, that is, pay high-quality access to the Internet, and the construction and operation of networks, purchase and installation of equipment made by the company “Enforta”, part of the holding. The volume of their actual investment in ERTH not disclose the project.
The Committee for Information did not say whether in ERTH structure of competition on the state contract, but noted that the responsibility for the conduct of the procurement procedures of these services is the Committee on the state order of St. Petersburg. In addition, the committee stated that monetize services to provide Wi-Fi is not currently planned. Thus, the return on the project is now under question.
Deputy Director of the IAA “Rustelecom” Sergei Ivanov said that while ERTH is not a leader in St. Petersburg in the number of public access points Wi-Fi. “ERTH overtakes the leader of St. Petersburg in the number of public access points, Wi-Fi – obit: they have more than 430 points on the pace today, of course, not in Moscow, where the last three years the number of Wi-Fi zones increased on average by 4000. But for Petersburg. where such zones are only about 1300 performance at the highest level “, – Mr. Ivanov says. According to him, the expansion of ERTH network also has a positive trend, so that if the operator will maintain this pace, by the end of the year will pass obit: 2014 Wi-Fi ERTH network consisted of about 173 points in 2015 – 269, and today has more than 400 .
