Will this improve the quality of the telecom services they use
In Russia, they are preparing to create a virtual mobile operator for the authorities. This was told to Izvestia by a source in government agencies and confirmed by an interlocutor close to the organization of the project. While it is at the stage of discussion and technical tests, they want to launch it on the basis of the state accident information system ERA-GLONASS. It uses the networks of four federal "classic" cellular companies at once, so subscribers of the new operator will receive the optimal quality of mobile communication, experts say.
The Era of Civil Servants
On the basis of the state accident information system ERA-GLONASS, a virtual mobile operator (MVNO) can be created to serve government officials. A source in one of the state structures told Izvestia about this. According to him, the project is under discussion between JSC GLONASS (ERA-GLONASS operator) and the largest domestic communications companies, in particular Rostelecom. Technical testing of the system is also underway to connect smartphones of civil servants to it and to organize voice communication and Internet access, the interlocutor of Izvestia claims.
A source close to one of the operators confirmed this information. Rostelecom declined to comment. Izvestia also sent a request to the Ministry of Finance.
— We are developing a number of projects on the use of secure communications, which can be applied in various industries. We are discussing the prospects of using the technology with industry companies," Alexey Raikevich, General Director of GLONASS JSC, told Izvestia.
Photo: RIA Novosti/Ilya Pitalev
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There is a request for such services in the authorities, says one of the sources.
— ERA-GLONASS transmits emergency signals through the networks of all four federal telecom operators, and selects the one whose signal has a better signal in this particular place. This architecture guarantees the state user the best quality of communication in any place, wherever he is," he says.
However, according to both sources of Izvestia, the project is still being discussed and it is unclear when the new operator will start working.
The issue of creating such a resource for officials and legislators based on ERA-GLONASS is being discussed, it should be a joint project of operators, a trusted environment has been created, one of them argues. But the inclusion of voice communication and the Internet requires solving technical issues, because now, when informing about an accident, ERA-GLONASS operates in M2M mode, automated machine-to-machine interaction, he explains.
— ERA-GLONASS is a unique system in the world in terms of its capabilities and potential, which is also constantly growing in the digital economy. Initially, in 2009-2014, it was created to solve a priority, but one task — an emergency call to state operational services to provide assistance and save the life and health of people caught in an emergency or emergency (accident) situation on the highway. But even then, at the stage of creating the system, it was obvious that its potential, that is, the list of tasks it solves, is much greater, primarily in tasks related to security in the broad sense of the word," said Andrey Ionin, chief analyst of the Digital Transport and Logistics Association.
Photo: RIA Novosti/Semyon Apasov
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According to the expert, ERA-GLONASS is also the only wireless operator in the world that works with millions of subscribers and throughout the country under the MVNO scheme on the networks of all national mobile operators.
At the same time, in accordance with the federal law on the ERA-GLONASS state system, the data in it have legal significance, and it is connected to the system of interdepartmental electronic interaction, the expert continued. Also, according to the law, the ERA-GLONASS operator is given the opportunity to create joint ventures with other companies to solve other government tasks, including on a commercial basis.
According to Andrey Ionin, the request of state agencies for secure communication was, is and will always be, especially in such turbulent times today. Of course, in terms of security, secrecy and encryption, communication based on the ERA-GLONASS infrastructure will be weaker than the systems used by the country's top leadership, but it will be more massive, for example, providing secure communication for hundreds of thousands of employees of legislative and executive authorities, he believes.
Historical continuity
During the Soviet era, the Altai mobile radiotelephone network operated in the country for officials and directors of the largest state-owned enterprises, which served several thousand nomenclature users, said Leonid Konik, a partner at ComNews Research. The subscriber equipment of this network occupied almost the entire trunk of the Volga car.
Altai System
Image source: Photo: Social networks
— The idea of creating a radio communication network for special consumers in Russia marked the 15th anniversary of the first practical step in this direction. In 2008, the TETRA mobile communication network was put into test operation at the Emergency Situations Center in Nizhny Novgorod. Speaking at that event, the head of the then Ministry of Communications Leonid Reiman said that TETRA is considered as a single national standard for professional mobile radio communications in the Russian Federation. But this did not happen in the end," Leonid Konik reminded.
Again, the idea of creating a federal operator for officials arose 10 years later, in 2018, by that time the TETRA trunking technology was outdated, so they decided to build such a network based on the LTE-450 standard, the expert said. But this project did not "fly" either — due to the lack of radio frequency spectrum, as well as due to the small choice of equipment, he points out.
— The idea to create a cellular network for special consumers based on a virtual operator (MVNO) "GLONASS Mobile" looks the most logical. Firstly, the use of MVNO eliminates the huge costs of building a new network infrastructure. Secondly, GLONASS Mobile is the "daughter" of the ERA—GLONASS emergency communications network operator, and this network interacts with all four federal cellular companies at once. Therefore, a user of such a network can be connected anywhere in Russia — if not through MTS, then through MegaFon, or if not through Tele2, then through Beeline," explains Leonid Konik.
Izvestia sent requests to MTS, Megafon and Vimpelcom.
Photo: RIA Novosti/Mikhail Voskresensky
Image source: iz.ru
On the one hand, connecting via ERA-GLONASS will be able to provide officials with safe and high-quality communication due to joining four operators at once, says Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group. On the other hand, the virtual operator is largely dependent on the operators of the physical networks on which it operates, for example, it cannot quickly provide radio coverage where a large number of subscribers need to be serviced, he notes.
In addition, comprehensive security depends not only on the SIM cards used - it is determined by a whole set of measures and regulations that vary greatly from the tasks and status of the authority, the expert explained. In some cases, when it is necessary that the transmission and reception of data is carried out in a closed mode and they are in no way connected with foreign services (for example, during the census), it is advisable for civil servants to issue domestic smartphones running on the Aurora operating system, the expert concludes.
Valery Kodachigov