MegaFon spent money on frequencies

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"PJSC MegaFon will make mobile Internet in the subways of the country's two largest cities unlimited for subscribers whose tariffs include gigabyte packages. To take advantage of the offer, just go down to the subway - MegaFon's internal systems will automatically ensure that the subscriber's tariff packages are not used up all the way to the surface," MegaFon said in a statement.

In 2023, the Moscow and St. Petersburg metros carried a total of almost 2.7 billion passengers. Since the beginning of 2024, the volume of traffic in the capital's underground has grown by 115%, in St. Petersburg - by 48%.

A representative of the india whatsapp resourceMegaFon press service told a ComNews correspondent that the operator is conducting a large-scale modernization of the network in the Moscow and St. Petersburg metro: "We want to give our subscribers a gift - to provide them with unlimited traffic to all services on our underground infrastructure. The main goal of the campaign is to give subscribers the opportunity to test the new network capabilities to the maximum extent possible."

At the time of publication of this article, the press services of the Moscow and St. Petersburg metro did not provide statistics on passenger traffic.

PJSC VimpelCom (brand Beeline), PJSC Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), and LLC T2 Mobile (Tele2) did not respond to questions from a ComNews correspondent.

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PJSC MegaFon's revenue for the first half of 2024 amounted to RUB 222.1 billion. Net profit compared to the first half of 2023 remained almost at the same level and amounted to RUB 26.9 billion, having lost only 0.22%. The lack of growth in net profit is due to a sharp increase in fees for using LTE frequencies.

Konstantin Ankilov, CEO of TMT Consulting LLC, believes that there will be no market redistribution as a result of this initiative. "Currently, operators are focused primarily on increasing subscriber loyalty, and free traffic in the metro will be a big plus for MegaFon clients. To see that this is relevant, just go down to the metro - in each car, many people watch videos, the most traffic-intensive content on smartphones," he commented.

Maxim Savvatin, a consultant at iKS-Consulting LLC, believes that this initiative from MegaFon is positive: "In my opinion, it has both a PR effect and one of the ways to strengthen the loyalty of MegaFon subscribers. I think that this fact will be actively used in the operator's marketing initiatives and achievements. I would not draw conclusions about any increase in subscribers - it is unlikely that this factor will affect the transition of subscribers from one network to another, besides, in the capitals many people already use the services of several mobile operators. This proposal is rather aimed at the loyalty of current MegaFon subscribers."

Maxim Savvatin believes that it is difficult to estimate the monetary value of this initiative: "MegaFon has calculated everything, and in the event of abuse and increased load on the network in the subways, the operator will introduce restrictions. "I do not think that this is a very costly part, since most subscribers already use package tariffs with prepaid traffic, and even if several gigabytes per month - and even then directly with active use in the subway - are conditionally free, then it is unlikely to be significant for the operator," he suggested.

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