"Disabling the Internet is necessary to provide a "clean space"

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ecurity due to the festive events in St. Petersburg. This could create problems for taxis, mobile applications, and ATMs

On January 25, the Governor of the Pskov Region, Mikhail Vedernikov, announced that until January 30, at night, from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., LTE mobile Internet (4G technology) of all operators will not work in the region. A few hours later, a similar announcement was made by the Ministry of Digital Development of the Novgorod Region, as well as the Digital Development Committee of the Leningrad Region.

According to one of RBC's denmark whatsapp number database sources in the telecommunications market, the order to disconnect the Internet "links this to a visit to these territories by high-ranking officials accompanied by the Federal Security Service (FSO)."

for drones, since it is with their help that security measures are ensured at night. Communication interruptions and emergency jamming of the Internet are allowed in these regions during the daytime as well, if a corresponding order is received," he said. On these dates, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is visiting Russia. As part of it, Lukashenko met with the country's President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, and both took part in events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the lifting of the siege of Leningrad, including a requiem concert at Gazprom Arena on Saturday, January 27. A meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State with the participation of Putin and Lukashenko is scheduled for January 29.

Another source in the telecommunications market also linked the shutdown of 4G to security measures during the events in St. Petersburg, but noted that this is necessary not for the operation of our drones, but to reduce the threat of attacks. "For guidance, drones use a GPS signal, which the Russian authorities deliberately distort, during the day - their own surveillance cameras, at night - cell towers on the ground," says this source. He explained that 4G communication is blocked only at night by the fact that this is when most attacks using drones occur. Another RBC source in the telecommunications market also linked the blocking of 4G to "the need to protect against enemy drones."

Mikhail Vedernikov's message indicated that 4G would be switched off "in connection with technical work to reconfigure the radio frequency spectrum of the transmitting equipment." The Novgorod Ministry of Digital Development also indicated technical work "to reconfigure broadcast frequencies."

RBC sent a request to the administrations of the Pskov, Novgorod and Leningrad regions, as well as to the Federal Protective Service and the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov.

What does disabling 4G affect?
Mikhail Vedernikov, in his announcement of the shutdown of 4G in the Pskov region, indicated that the Internet in the 3G standard will continue to work, "but it is outdated, and in many areas [of the region] it simply does not exist," in connection with which the governor predicted failures. "In particular, at night it will be difficult to call a taxi using mobile applications and use ATMs," he wrote in his Telegram channel.

A representative of the bank "Dom.RF" explained to RBC that the disconnection of 4G does not affect the operation of payment cards, since when making a payment, the card interacts with the device through its interface. "There may be problems with ATMs or POS terminals. But for "Dom.RF" this is not critical, since we do not use this connection method, preferring stable channels," he said. RBC sent a request to the largest banks.

Representatives of the largest mobile operators refused to comment on the shutdown of 4G in a number of regions. Representatives of taxi, car sharing, music and other services, which use high-speed mobile Internet, also did so.

Denis Kuskov, CEO of the TelecomDaily news agency, believes that the measure is adequate from a technical point of view - "the switch that helps control drones is being turned off." In his opinion, this could cause problems "only for those who like to download movies at night; home Internet can be used as an alternative."