Russian Internet Providers Report 10–30% Increase in Traffic

Journalists from RBC spoke with representatives of major Russian internet providers (“Rostelecom,” “Transtelecom,” “Akado Telecom,” and “VimpelCom”) and found that, during the week of March 23–29, internet traffic consumption increased by 10–30% compared to other working days in 2020.

According to Svetlana Belykh, head of the press service at Akado Telecom, internet traffic is gradually increasing due to subscribers being forced to stay at home, as well as new users switching from mobile internet to wired connections. She specified that on March 25, daytime traffic (from 12:00 to 18:00) rose by 23% compared to the previous week, and on March 30, it increased by another 12%.

Transtelecom reported a 10–12% increase in home internet usage compared to the previous month, while Rostelecom noted a 7–10% rise depending on the region.

Ekaterina Kazachenko, a representative of VimpelCom, pointed out not only a 20–30% increase in broadband access across Russia but also a 15% rise in traditional voice calls.

According to Alexey Merkutov, a representative of MTS, since March 16, fixed-line traffic in Moscow and the surrounding region has grown by 30% compared to working days earlier this year. The highest load occurs during the daytime from 12:00 to 16:00 and in the evening after 7:00 PM. The operator has observed an unusual surge in traffic on social networks and messengers—almost fourfold. The share of social network and messenger traffic in the total data volume has nearly doubled in recent days, reaching 18%.

Andrey Egorov, Business Development Director for the mass market at Wifire (part of MegaFon), stated that at the end of last week, daytime traffic consumption in Russia increased by 40% in the company’s coverage cities compared to typical weekday levels. The largest growth was seen in the Moscow region—up to 60%, and in Murmansk, Cheboksary, and Yekaterinburg, up to 50%. The amount of time spent watching digital TV matched activity levels on a typical weekend. “We see that daytime internet traffic has grown, but evening traffic has remained almost unchanged,” Egorov noted.

Despite the increased network load, providers assure that they have not observed any outages and that their networks are prepared for the higher traffic volumes.