Will unlimited mobile internet be cancelled? Let's understand the situation. Why is unlimited mobile Internet disappearing in Russia? Unlimited Mobile Internet of the Year

The last time I wrote was almost half a year ago. And half a year in telecom is a very long time; during this time a lot of things have changed, been cancelled, etc. And although my past articles, even very ancient ones, are still popular, there is a lot of scattered information in them, half of which is no longer relevant. Therefore, I decided that it was time to update all my old calculations, briefly summarizing everything that was in them and relevant to this day (September-October 2017). In addition, the following also motivated me to write this article:

1. As it turned out during my trip to the Astrakhan region, MTS Internet coverage, especially in the Volgograd region, is simply below par, and even in Moscow I often have problems with the connection. If anything, I’m talking about 3G, which often drops into 2G, which in turn practically doesn’t work (literally, not at all).
2. MTS has completely become greedy, and using its BIT option against the background of competitors’ offers has become completely unprofitable.

These reasons led me to search for a more suitable tariff plan from another operator, which ended with connecting to, which I also simply have to mention.

As for the mobile Internet, I will go through three main profiles:

• minimum and cheapest tariffs for children/navigators and smart devices
• optimal tariffs with minimal fees
• unlimited tariffs

One of the tariffs overlaps with all three profiles, being both unlimited (but very slow) and optimal in cost at the same time - therefore, for ease of presentation, I will mention it separately. Naturally, this is all for Moscow, because I live there; in the regions it may differ.

Minimum and cheapest tariffs for those who do not need a lot of traffic: children/navigators and smart devices

As we remember, MTS options BIT SMART A, B and C, which perfectly covered the requirements of all those who needed little Internet, and at an inexpensive price.

What to do now, who needs a minimum of Internet for a minimum of money? The options are:

• In Moscow now the cheapest in terms of the Internet is the smart device tariff - http://www.mts.ru/export/umnoe_ustroystvo/. Payment is for a year at once, but it turns out to be an average of 60 rubles per month, for this money - 300 MB of Internet, 30 minutes of calls and 30 SMS per month. Anything above this is for an additional fee, but a reasonable one.
• In St. Petersburg - http://www.spb.mts.ru/export/umnoe_ustroystvo/.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to connect to the current tariff, only with an additional SIM card. In any case, this option is better than Mini-Bit with its write-off of 25 rubles for each day the device goes online (and even then, only 20 MB is included). And the worse thing is that a randomly popped-up update can pump out 300 allotted megabytes at a time, and you will be left without the Internet at all until the end of the month (since 64 kbps - in fact, this is without it).

Perhaps that’s all - I haven’t found anything else for minimal money (read: less than a hundred rubles a month for no less than 10 MB a day) from any of the operators. Everything else is tariffs with per-megabyte payment, on average - 2 rubles per 1 MB.

Optimal tariffs with minimum payment

MTS has finally gone crazy, charging 200 rubles for the BIT option, and providing only 75 MB per day for this money, and even with a limitation to Moscow and the Moscow region. Even if you pump them out every day, you will get 2.2 GB, but you won’t be able to spread them over a month. Typical situation: I have a Super-MTS tariff, which has no monthly fee and includes 20 free minutes per day of calls to my own MTS numbers. Thus, it turned out that I was spending the same 200 rubles on communications (all friends/acquaintances/relatives also spent on MTS), which went exclusively to paying for the Internet; and therefore, connecting “Smart for Your Own” from MTS 2017 with a subscription fee of 200 rubles per month would not be economically feasible, because the cost of the code to switch to it is about a thousand rubles, and it would pay for itself in at least a year, or even two.

There are no other tariff options that you can link to your SIM card, and there are two options: transfer the number to another operator, or transfer your smartphone to a dual-SIM scheme: on the first SIM card - MTS with the old number and tariff without a subscription, and on the other - a different one operator. And here you have the following options:

• Smart for your own from MGTS. Absolutely similar to the smart tariff for our own from MTS, i.e. 10 GB of Internet for 200 rubles per month, only SIM card - MGTS, running on the MTS network. It is connected at the MGTS office, just go there and ask. At first they will try to talk you into public tariffs, but if you stand firm in your opinion, they will reluctantly give you away. Well, at least it was like that a couple of months ago. I didn’t really like this option, because... as I already said, MTS coverage in the sense of 3G Internet did not suit me at all, and I didn’t see any sense in 10 GB if in fact you can’t use it.
• with the “My TELE2” tariff - for 210 rubles per month, 5 GB of Internet is provided, and throughout Russia, plus the Internet limits do not include social networks, Vibers, WhatsApp, etc., and even unlimited calls to TELE2, free incoming calls in roaming in Russia, and outgoing calls cost 2 rubles per minute. Now I installed it as my second SIM card and have been using it for a month now. Yes, MTS was left sucking its paw with only one SIM card with a tariff without a monthly fee. There is only one inconvenience - you need a dual-SIM phone. But if I like it, and there are no further problems, then I feel that I will transfer mine and the whole family’s numbers via MNP from MTS to theirs - because it will no longer be 20 minutes a day, but unlimited, and calls to other networks will be more profitable. In general, today it’s ideal. There is a similar offer from Rostelecom, but given that they are on the network, it doesn’t make much sense.

Unlimited tariffs

• The Connect-4 tariff and the connected option “Internet 4 Mbit/s”, I also wrote about them in my first, comparing them with unlimited. Yes, 750 rubles per month. But relatively honest unlimited.

Its advantages are that:

• Distribution via Wi-Fi to other devices is not limited, i.e. no need to dance with a tambourine around fixing/changing TTL
• Although slow, at 512 kbps, there are torrents

Well, among the minuses:

• The need to take it with a separate SIM card in addition to the existing one (read - you need a dual-SIM phone), because 4 rubles per minute even for your own network, and at the same time - absolutely without included minutes - is horror-horror. However, if you buy it specifically for unlimited Internet, then it’s okay, unlimited internet was often used in this mode
• Speed ​​is limited - only 4 Mbit/s
• You can’t take it outside of Moscow and the Moscow region - they start charging 1,500 rubles a month in addition to 750 rubles for a subscription (read - you have to look for the same in each region)

Unlimited, but inexpensive and slow Internet

• Another option, but not available to everyone, and not to say that it is very cheap - but nevertheless, interesting. So to speak, a non-public Internet option, an invitation to connect to which comes via SMS, but sometimes you can connect just like that. Unlimited with speed limited to 1 Mbit/s. But for only 200 rubles a month. In principle, this is enough even to watch YouTube, although not in full HD, of course. Once upon a time, I remember, even 2 Mbit over the wire was the ultimate dream. In general, if these conditions suit you, you can try to connect to it (all other options like Bit/Super Bit must be disabled, and there must be at least 200 rubles in the account). Here is a link to this tariff “Internet 1 Mbit/s (month). NP"

Last weekend, Megafon subscribers learned from the company’s Twitter that the operator had decided to abandon tariffs with unlimited Internet. This raised questions from account subscribers, to which representatives of the operator responded that the option was being closed due to low demand.

“Over the past month, we have seen an extremely small number of new connections, which on the scale of a federal operator essentially means a complete lack of interest,” Megafon said in its tweets.

Representatives of the operator confirmed this decision to Gazeta.Ru. “The changes apply only to new connections. For everyone who activated the option before February 1, the option will continue to be valid,” said Megafon press secretary Yulia Dorokhina.

The absolute majority of clients are satisfied with the traffic volumes included in the package, the company believes.

Yota, associated with Megafon, was the first to launch the flywheel of refusal from unlim. It is noteworthy that when they entered the voice services market 2.5 years ago, they differed from competitors in providing a similar service.

However, at the end of 2016, the mobile virtual operator announced its decision to remove the unlimited Internet package from its product line at the very beginning of 2017.

The operator announced a new business approach in January, assuring active users of instant messengers and social networks that they have nothing to fear: Yota, having removed universal unlimited traffic, proposed using it in individual applications.

In particular,

The offer applies to Facebook, Instagram, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Telegram, Viber and WhatsApp.



The refusal is due to the fact that operators have not been able to learn how to make money on such a service, Denis Kuskov, general director of the information and analytical agency TelecomDaily, expressed his opinion in a conversation with Gazeta.Ru.

To resolve the situation, telecom corporations could make unlimited Internet an exclusive service with a high price tag. “But then subscribers would not use it en masse, preferring a Wi-Fi connection to download heavy files,” the analyst argues.

Kuskov is confident that the process of abandoning unlimited Internet that began with Yota “has gone on and will affect all operators,” and not just anyone in particular.

His words are confirmed by published in "Vedomosti" information that MTS is also considering closing its “Unlimited” service in the near future.

Company press secretary Dmitry Solodovnikov, commenting on this information, only noted that the operator will “analyze the consumption profile of subscribers in order to offer them optimal tariffs.”

Black and yellow fortune teller

According to Denis Kuskov, there are not many users who download large amounts of data from their smartphone using wireless broadband Internet (WBA). So, according to TelecomDaily statistics,

only 2-5% of users are truly active consumers of heavy content and need unlimited traffic.

In general, per subscriber, according to calculations by the analytical company, on average there is 3.5 GB of data. “This figure is far from unlimited,” sums up Kuskov.

At the same time, operators do not see much income from such “hardcore” users, but they spend significant resources on these 2-5% of subscribers who load the network. “Base stations can serve a certain number of subscribers at a certain time,” explains the publication’s interlocutor.

The general director of VimpelCom (Beeline brand) Shell Morten Johnsen spoke about curtailing the idea of ​​​​promoting tariffs with an unlimited Internet package, which never had time to be fully realized. Such measures, as the head of the company emphasized,

discipline subscribers who consume large volumes of traffic in conditions of high network congestion.

VimpelCom did not disclose plans to close such tariffs, but made it clear that the attitude towards Unlim has not changed.

“Unlimited plans have essentially turned into a marketing tool to attract attention to offers, but in fact, the real consumption of the vast majority of customers is actually the same as on tariffs with included data traffic packages,” the head of the company’s press service told Gazeta.Ru. Anna Aibasheva.

Less discounter

The head of the strategic communications department of Tele2, Konstantin Prokshin, told Gazeta.Ru back in December that the company does not yet plan to abandon unlimited tariffs. “This offer helps us attract new subscribers,” a representative of the operator explained then.

At the same time, at the end of January the company made large-scale changes to its positioning. Tele2 CEO Sergei Emdin announced the abandonment of the “hard discount” policy at the presentation of the new strategy on January 25. “If previously we were the operator with the lowest prices, now we want to be the operator for those who do not want to overpay,” he emphasized.

In addition, Tele2 is going to transfer unused minutes and traffic to the next month. This decision was made taking into account the operator’s statistics showing that about 80% of subscribers do not have time to fully use all their allotted call minutes, SMS and Internet packages.

Kuskov recalled that in Russia the cost of communication services remains lower than in Europe and the USA.

“Our tariffs are inexpensive, the quality of the operators is good. Not without flaws, of course, but at a high level,”

— the analyst praised domestic players in the telecom market.

The process of “packaging” tariffs, according to the head of TelecomDaily, did not come just like that: in the current difficult economic conditions, operators are trying to earn every penny by raising prices for certain options.

“They will not raise prices sharply, but operators strive to provide more services for more money through packages and, accordingly, increase ARPU. The second task is to increase the number of smartphones connected to the mobile Internet,” Kuskov predicts.

TelecomDaily data shows that only 50-60% of Russian subscribers access the network using the services of cellular operators. The goal is to raise the bar to 70-80% of device owners connected to the mobile Internet.

Almost every phone owner uses the mobile Internet these days. Most people want to determine which operator is best for mobile Internet. This is becoming increasingly difficult to do, since each mobile operator is trying to attract a large number of new customers by improving its services in terms of the quality and cost of the Internet.

Criteria for choosing mobile Internet

Before you settle on any operator, there are a few things to consider that can help you make the right choice. These include the following criteria:

• speed;
• traffic volume;
• price.

Cost has recently played a very minor role, since the price of mobile Internet for each operator is approximately the same, and even the cheapest tariff is quite a bit less expensive than the most expensive.

Particular attention must be paid to the speed and number of gigabytes provided. When choosing the Internet for a mobile device, you need to take into account how the owner of the smartphone will use the traffic. If you plan to watch movies on your phone, then the minimum connection speed should be at least 1 Mbit/sec. For video calls on Skype you need from 512 Kbps, and for online games – 128–256 Kbps. The volume of traffic also depends on the purposes for which the Internet will be used for the phone.

MTS is one of the most popular operators throughout Russia and neighboring countries. The provider's tariffs are distinguished by great variety, flexibility and differentiated offers for owners of different mobile devices. In the competition, all mobile operators are trying to improve their services, and MTS is no exception.

The company offers its customers a choice of the following tariff plans for smartphones:

1. "Internet Maxi".
2. "Internet Mini".
3. "Internet VIP".

The difference between the three tariffs is the cost and the number of megabytes provided per month. So, in Internet Mini, the client receives 3 GB of traffic for daily use and pays 350 rubles. Thus, the cost of 1 GB is 116 rubles 67 kopecks. “Internet Mini” provides 12 GB at night and 12 GB during the day for 700 rubles. This means that for 1 MB you will have to pay less than 6 kopecks, and for 1 GB – 58 rubles. “Internet VIP” allows unlimited use, and daily traffic is 30 GB at a price of 1,200 rubles – 40 rubles/GB. If a subscriber has the opportunity to pay 1,200 rubles per month, then the “Internet-VIP” package will be the most optimal solution.

The company also provides the opportunity to use it on smartphones and tablets. To do this you need, the cost of which is 12.90 rubles per day in almost all regions except Moscow and the Moscow region, where from the second month MTS subscribers will have to pay 19 rubles per day.

This cellular operator has four service packages:

1. 600 minutes + 300 SMS.
2. 1,100 minutes + 500 SMS.
3. 2,200 minutes + 1,000 SMS.
4. 3,300 minutes + 3,000 SMS.

The cost of each package is respectively 500, 800, 1,200 and 1,800 rubles per month. Each of them provides the ability to connect to unlimited Internet. Thus, the subscriber has a chance to use unlimited mobile Internet for 500 rubles per month. In addition, the user must have 500 rubles in his account. This amount will initially be frozen and will eventually be returned to the owner.

Megaphone

When choosing mobile Internet, it is very difficult to say which operator is better. In any case, Megafon is on the list of the best. The company offers its customers fast, but relatively expensive Internet for smartphones in its “All Inclusive” line:

1. VIP – 2,700 rubles.
2. L, XL – 950-1,350 rubles.
3. M – 810 rubles.
4. S – 570 rubles.

The price is indicated taking into account the subscription fee and payment for unlimited connection. This is not to say that it is the cheapest, but unlike Beeline, the process of paying for the service on Megafon is much simpler. The first connection is free, and each subsequent connection will cost 100 rubles. Based on how the subscriber uses other options, the most favorable tariff may be any of the above.

Internet from Tele2

This is another operator that needs to be mentioned. Tele2 offers its subscribers three tariffs:

1. 7 GB for 299 rub.
2. 15 GB for 599 rub.
3. 30 GB for 899 rub.

Thus, the price of 1 GB in these tariffs is 42.71 rubles, 40 rubles. and 30 rub. This is also a good offer. Of course, mobile Internet from Tele2 is not the most profitable, but the cost of 1 GB is cheaper than in tariffs from MTS.

Yota

The latest provider that provides its subscribers with unlimited mobile Internet is an operator called Yota. In addition to traffic, Yota offers unlimited messages and calls within the network, as well as 100, 300, 600, 900 or 1,200 minutes to numbers of other operators.

The not best thing is that a phone with a Yota card cannot be fully used as a modem. If you do this, 3G will not function fully. The speed will be limited to 128 Kbps, but for tasks that do not require a high-speed connection, it will be enough to ensure good performance.

Many believe that the quality of communication on Yota is not the best among all others, however, the services of this operator are available in all regions where Megafon has a connection.

A large number of subscribers are wondering which operator to choose to connect to the Internet via a modem. First on the list is . This is one of the most favorable tariffs for a modem. To connect it, you need to purchase a modem from MTS. Any other company's device will not work. Data transfer speed is approximately 21 Mb/s. The activation cost is 699 rubles. After this, the subscriber must pay 600 rubles for each month.

Good internet for the modem is provided by Beeline and Megafon. The cost can be up to 1,000 rubles. depending on the region. Also, these two operators give their clients access to entertainment content (exchangers, game servers) without traffic charges.

We need to look at where the connection is better. Depending on the region of residence, the quality of communication from the same operator may differ. You also need to take into account the additional features provided by the tariff plan. For example, if you need a package of free minutes or test messages, then you can pay attention to the package of services from Beeline for 1,800 rubles. In the case when you only need the Internet, the same Beeline offers unlimited inexpensively - for only 500 rubles. per month. For about the same amount you can connect to the most unlimited service from Megafon, having overpaid some 70 rubles.

In cases where unlimited is not an urgent need, you can connect a Mini from MTS for 350 rubles. and get the ability to download and upload 3 GB of data.

Based on the above material, we can conclude that the cheapest package is from Beeline for 500 rubles, which, when connected, allows you to use unlimited traffic. The downside of the tariff is postpayment. For 570 rub. You can activate “All Inclusive” from Megafon, but you must take into account that there may be additional costs associated with calls and sending text messages.

Each operator offers a wide variety of tariff plans, so any user will find one that suits them. When choosing, you should not be guided by which tariff is the cheapest, but you should take into account the entire model of using the smartphone. Some people only need traffic, while others need minutes and SMS.

At the end of January, Yota from completely unlimited Internet traffic, and at the beginning of February, two more operators announced their intention to make similar changes to their tariffs. What is this connected with? Are subscribers really not interested in unlimited tariffs?

The prerequisites for the abolition of full unlimited services, oddly enough, appeared even before operators began introducing such tariffs. In March 2016, full unlim appeared at , in May at , and in June succumbed to the trend. Before this, only Yota had unlimited tariffs, but this operator was considered a niche operator, it did not have many subscribers and had little influence on the market.

Even before the introduction of unlimited limits, the head of Beeline, Mikhail Slobodin, called on market participants to raise prices for mobile Internet. At that time, operators offered subscribers package tariffs that included Internet traffic, conversation minutes and SMS messages. Slobodin said that fewer and fewer subscribers need telephone communications and SMS, and the Internet is the only source of income with growth potential. Nobody listened to him, including Beeline itself.

Yota has already abandoned full unlimited limits for new subscribers and introduced package tariffs. MTS will introduce the “Unlimited” tariff line in 2017, as well as reduce the amount of mobile Internet traffic on package tariffs. "Megaphone" reported on Twitter about the intention to close the “Unlimited Internet” service for new connections. The refusal is motivated by the fact that the operator noted a “small number of new connections,” which indicates a “complete lack of interest” in unlimited.

Beeline did not report the upcoming cancellation of unlimited “Everything” tariffs, and Tele2, according to Vedomosti, “will monitor market trends.”

There may be several reasons to eliminate unlimited limits. Firstly, tariffs with unlimited traffic are usually more expensive than package plans, so they don’t look as attractive and give the impression that operators are artificially inflating prices. Secondly, traffic consumption with full unlimited in most cases is not much higher than with tariffs with restrictions. Perhaps there are individual subscribers who pump out as much traffic as they can, but they are the least needed by the operator, since they create a large load on the network. Thirdly, by introducing a complete unlimited service, operators have closed their own opportunities for additional earnings on traffic and additional services. Another possible reason is that due to the introduction of the “Yarovaya Law Package,” operators need to store all user traffic for six months, and with complete unlimited access, the amount of data that needs to be stored on servers becomes unpredictably huge.

The development of fourth generation networks among Russian telecom operators has allowed subscribers to consider traffic through cellular networks as a real alternative to wired Internet, if there is no need for hundreds of gigabytes per month and maximum download speed. High-speed cellular Internet also allowed subscribers to forget about searching for an available Wi-Fi network when traveling around the country.

Today we will try to figure out which operator in the Samara region offers the best mobile Internet - MTS, Beeline, MegaFon or Tele2? Who has better rates, and which offer can be used not only on a smartphone, but also on a tablet or laptop?

Operator selection

It is impossible to say for sure which operator offers the best 4G mobile Internet. Despite statements by operators about ideal coverage (at least in large cities), everyone has holes. It is also worth considering how you plan to use the service.

For smartphone users, it is worth choosing a package offer from an operator that offers optimal conditions for both calls and the Internet. But if you plan to use a SIM card for a tablet, modem or laptop, then the choice is wider.

In this situation, it is worth not only assessing the operator’s coverage in the area of ​​the city you need or in the entire locality, but also its popularity among subscribers. So, sometimes, an operator that has a smaller number of subscribers in its network can offer higher quality Internet at higher speeds, precisely because of the small number of active subscribers.

For smartphone

Despite the abundance of tariff offers from operators, everything depends on the individual preferences of each subscriber. In the range of offers of any company, you can choose the tariff that suits you.

If you prefer to use MTS voice communications, then for your smartphone you should choose from the tariffs of the “Smart” line. This will not only allow you to make profitable calls to phones of any operator, but will also receive packages of additional services, including mobile Internet.

For users who do not often travel outside the Samara region, three initial tariffs in the line will be optimal. In the “Smart 2017” tariff line, they offer the best ratio of services for voice calls and mobile Internet.

The “Smart +” and “Smart Top” packages are worth paying attention to if you often travel outside your home region. Unlike the initial ones in the line, they offer roaming within Russia at no additional charge.

Beeline tariffs differ in the daily debiting of fees, but if you top up your account in an amount equal to the monthly payment, Internet traffic will be charged twice as much as standard conditions.

Like MTS, on Beeline the most expensive tariffs of the updated “Everything” line do not differ in the amount of traffic in the package from the cheaper ones, and are intended for those who make a large number of calls.

On the “All 3/4/5” tariffs, package minutes can be used when traveling outside the Samara region, and on the “All 2” tariff, the Internet package is consumed without additional payments when traveling.

MegaFon offers the best tariffs for mobile phone users in its new “Turn On!” line. There are not only the usual mobile Internet packages, but also good options for online services - from social networks to music and video channels.

Depending on the tariff, various additional options are available for using mobile Internet. But regardless of the package you choose, you can connect them separately.

Tele2 has four tariffs available for smartphones in the Samara region. They differ from their competitors at a more affordable price. Among the benefits for calls are free calls on the network that do not consume your package of minutes. For mobile Internet, unlimited traffic on social networks is provided.

For Internet on devices

What mobile Internet user doesn’t dream of unlimited traffic on the best terms? Full unlimited speed at an optimal speed of 3 Mbit is offered by MTS in the “Connect 4” tariff. The cost of the package per month is 500 rubles, and you can buy a new SIM card with a tariff for 520 rubles.

Yes, the speed is not the maximum, but traffic is not taken into account when used in any device - tablet, router or modem. If higher speeds are required, one of the additional options can be activated. The speed will be maximum, but with a limited amount of data.

Beeline and Tele2 have tariff plans that allow you to connect additional traffic packages for use via a modem or router.

For tablet users, Beeline has a special offer for 400 rubles per month - “All Tablets Are Possible”. It includes 12 gigabytes, but “everything is possible” above the limit will be expensive - 20 rubles for 50 megabytes.

Megafon has a basic tariff available without a monthly fee, to which you can connect traffic packages. There is also an unlimited package on the list, but this is the case when you need to read the terms of the tariff written in small print. Unlimited traffic is available only at night, and 30 gigabytes are provided during the day.

Results

Despite the variety of tariffs of the main operators, the smartphone user usually has to choose a tariff from the operator that is used by the majority in his environment. If we abstract from this rule, then it is worth noting the approach to creating a new tariff line for MegaFon. In terms of basic parameters, they differ little from their competitors, but the presence of additional options for mobile Internet sets them apart from other companies.