Mobile Internet consumption is growing in Tatarstan, but the problem of its disconnection has not been solved
The Ministry of Digital Development of the Republic summed up the results of its work in the first half of 2025
Internet consumption is steadily growing in Tatarstan — both mobile and wired. In the last six months alone, the volume of mobile Internet traffic has increased by 7%, and wireline service — by 34%. However, despite such indicators, the republic has still not solved the problem of Internet and communication disconnections during the unmanned danger mode. These and other topics were discussed at the final board of the regional Ministry of Digital Development following the results of the first half of 2025. Read more about it in the report of Realnoe Vremya.
More than 3 billion rubles in investment in the development of telecommunications infrastructure
In 2025, the volume of investments of operators in the development of communications infrastructure in Tatarstan amounted to 3.2 billion rubles, which exceeded last year's amount by 200 million rubles. Deputy Minister of Digital Development of the Republic Albert Yakovlev spoke about this during the final board meeting.
“The volume of mobile Internet traffic increased by 7% and reached 1.2 million petabytes. Even more significant growth is shown by wired communications — in the first half of 2025, traffic increased by 34%, reaching 3.6 million petabytes,” he reported.
According to Yakovlev, two factors influenced this growth:
- active modernization of fixed networks with the transition to GPON technology;
- increased availability of high-speed tariff plans with the digitalization of public services and the educational sphere and the introduction of the Internet of Things into the urban infrastructure.
The number of high-speed mobile Internet users in the republic in 2025 exceeded 5 million people. At the same time, the number of residents using wired Internet increased to 1.3 million subscribers.
To eliminate digital inequality in 70 settlements of Tatarstan in the first half of 2025, 420 million rubles were allocated. In the second half of the year, it is planned to allocate 534 million rubles to solve the same problem in 89 settlements.
Eliminating digital inequality is a social problem of the gap in the level of availability and quality of information and communication technologies among different groups of the population.
“In 2025, special attention is paid to improving the coverage on the M-7 highway and new sections of the M-12. To ensure reliable radio coverage, telecom operators are working on installing 48 base stations. The key problem on remote sections of federal and regional roads remains the lack of centralized power supply. To solve this problem, the government of Tatarstan is developing a targeted subsidy programme,” Yakovlev added.
Tatarstan residents are dissatisfied with the quality of electronic services
Despite successful indicators in terms of the development of telecom infrastructure, the digitalization of public services leaves much to be desired. As the First Deputy Minister of Digital Development of Tatarstan Ilya Nachvin reported during the board meeting, residents of the republic are dissatisfied with the quality of electronic government services.
“The situation is truly alarming: out of 94,000 applications submitted in the first half of the year, more than 35 thousand, or almost 40%, were rejected. In fact, every third application does not receive due attention. The authorities need not only to reduce the number of delays, but also to explain to people the reasons for rejecting applications in simple and understandable language so that citizens can correct mistakes when applying again,” he expressed concern.
Then Nachvin moved directly to the possibilities of solving the problem — in particular, to the development of artificial intelligence in the public administration of the republic. Thus, in Tatarstan, a service with artificial intelligence Gospromt appeared:
“This tool has reduced the document processing time from hours to minutes, and the time it takes to complete large tasks — from a month to several days. More than 2,000 employees from 112 ministries and departments are already working with the system. 37% of users regularly solve five or more tasks weekly, saving at least 10 hours monthly.”
Traffic consumption is growing, but the Internet is being disconnected
The Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic, the head of the Cabinet of Ministers' staff Shamil Gafarov moved on to the problems in the industry. First of all, he named regular disconnections of the mobile Internet due to the drone attack mode. The speaker emphasized that the lack of Internet is not as critical as communication difficulties:
“In Tatarstan, questions arise during the drone threat mode. It happens that when the Internet is limited, all mobile communication is lost. We need to develop solutions that would allow us to maintain mobile telephone communication. At the very least, this way we will ensure communication during emergencies and speed up decision making.”
Gafarov said that solutions need to be developed as soon as possible. This may require serious financial costs.
The next topic that requires revision is the lack of mobile coverage. In Tatarstan, there are still places where people complain about the quality of the Internet and communications.
“When I raise the issue of the quality of mobile communications in the Ministry of Digital Development of Tatarstan, they ask me to say where it works poorly. I propose launching a campaign where we would ask the population, for example, once a month, where such a problem exists. This way we will be able to identify areas where work needs to be done,” he proposed a way to solve the problem.
