‘She walks along the garden looking for a signal’: Tatarstan in the lead in countryside voting for mobile Internet

Tatarstan becomes leader in number of votes for laying Internet in small settlements

As the republic’s Minister of Digital Development Ayrat Khayrullin said on his social media, Tatarstan became a leader in the number of votes for connecting Internet in small settlements. According to the minister, the region is taking the lead in an online voting with more than 23,800 votes. Tatarstan is followed by Bashkortostan and Krasnodar Krai.

Derbeden village, Almetyevsk District (1,272 votes), Michanbash, Saba District (690 votes) and Novy Kukmor, Kukmor District (662 votes) are in the top 3 among Tatarstan villages.

As Khayrullin said, the results of the survey will be published only in autumn. The voting itself was prolonged until 10 September 2023 inclusively. It should be reminded the voting started on 18 July and is held across Russia. Winner villages with a population of 100-500 people will get a stable mobile network and mobile Internet. The programme is aimed to eliminate digital inequality in the countryside.

99 basic stations were planned to be installed in Tatarstan during two years of the programme — in 2022 and 2023. So in the end the equipment was installed in 44 settlements of the republic. Another 55 basic stations are promised to be installed till the end of the year.

“Poor signal”: Tatarstan residents regularly complain about the quality of the Internet

Also, Realnoe Vremya analysed complaints of Tatarstan residents about the Internet performance in districts. However, they leave negative comments not only in settlements or remote districts but also in Kazan.

For instance, one of the users complained about the absence of the Internet at Mega shopping centre. The citizen indicated this caused a lot of inconveniences for them and doesn’t let him use mobile apps. One of the providers replied to his complaint: “The given shopping centre has a partial LTE coverage. Such a situation can appear due to external factors, including the wall thickness, the construction of pillars and the operation of external radiating devices.”

There is a sufficient number of complaints from residents of Almetyevsk District. For instance, a local talked about communication problems as early as mid-July, her application hasn’t yet been addressed.

Complaints about the poor signal can be seen in other Tatarstan districts too, for instance, in Kaybitsy District:

“My friend lives in Murza Berlibash and walks along the garden with the phone, this is how she looks for a signal. Fine, she can walk between beds in summer, but there is snow in winter. She lives there because she cares for her mother,” a local resident wrote.

Bugulma citizens complained about the same problems not only in settlements and Bugulma itself.

“Villages will have a high-speed Internet, but it isn’t available everywhere in the city. At least in Kirzavod District, on Nikitin Street, the speed is very low here, just 6 Mbit per second. It is very little. It would be really good to have a high-speed Internet in the whole city,” wrote Maria Bardina.

It should be reminded that last December same Ayrat Khayrullin reported on laying high-speed Internet in the republic’s settlements. According to the minister, over 100,000 republican countryside households got access to the high-speed Internet via the GPON optic network in 2022. In 2021, this number reached 61,000 households.