MOSCOW: Rostelecom PJSC, the largest integrated digital service provider in Russia, announced that according to ratings provided by TMT Consulting, an independent consulting agency, Rostelecom leads the market for the number of public WiFi hotspots.

According to TMT Consulting, market volume for public WiFi hotspots grew by 23% over the last year in Russia to 166,000, all of which were launched and managed by telecom operators. The market hit the total revenue mark of RUB 7 billion, up 12% compared to 2018.

The rating agency notes that Rostelecom became the leader in 2019 by the number of operated WiFi hotspots – 45,100 in total excluding the Bridging the Digital Divide project. Rostelecom’s leading position in the market thus equates to a 27% share of the entire public WiFi service market by the number of hotspots which increased by 64% over the last year. The increase in demand was coming predominantly from large companies operating in the banking sector, as well as from the HoReCa segment.

Denis Ryabchenkov, Director of Product Management at the corporate and state segment of Rostelecom PJSC, commented: “Rostelecom serves a wide range of SMEs, banks as well as large corporations with its WiFi service which meets the highest technological requirements and the quality of customer service. It can be complemented with a whole complex of service model based integrated solutions, including wired Internet connection, digital TV, mobile communication and private virtual networks.”

Today, wireless Internet access is considered completely essential to our day to day living and communication. Rostelecom has extensive experience in rolling out large distributed WiFi networks. Its technical capabilities were first tested as part of the FIFA 2018 World Cup. The campaign saw the total internet consumption scaled to 65Tbite capacity, making Rostelecom’s free public WiFi networks available to more than 144,000 users at the stadiums and over 43,000 people in fan-zones across Russia. Individuals from 137 countries successfully passed the authorization process, with no registered disruptions.