Russia’s new “anti-terrorist” legislation adopted last month could cost mobile operators up to 10 trillion rubles (approximately $154 billion at the current exchange rate), RBC reported today. The online business publication cited an estimate from Denis Neshtun, General Manager of data storage company RCNTEC.
The cost to mobile networks could be significantly reduced if the law’s requirements were softened and/or if the price of the required equipement continues to fall on the global market, according to Neshtun.
Earlier estimates made by the operators themseves had placed the predicted cost to operators at 2.2 trillion rubles ($34 billion).
A substantial part of this new legislation — which Edward Snowden has called “Russia’s new Big-Brother law” — targets the Internet and telecom industry. According to these new rules, which will come to force in 2018, telecom operators and “organizers of information distribution” — a category which may include any website — will need to store the content of their users’s communications for a period of six months. This applies to the recordings of all phone calls and the content of all text messages. Metadata on these communications will need to be kept for three years by telecom companies and for one year by “organizers of information distribution.”
Telecom operators and “organizers of information distribution” will also be required to cooperate with the Federal Security Service (FSB) to make their users’ communication fully accessible to this organization.
