On the Path to “Fair” Tariffs: Is Anyone Still Interested?

The leaders of Russia and Belarus seem poised to launch a project to abolish roaming charges within the Union State. However, as experience shows, both Lukashenka and Putin have a habit of unveiling projects that are already essentially complete.

According to Dmitri Krutoy, head of the Belarusian Presidential Administration, roaming between Belarus and Russia may be abolished in either a pilot or permanent mode next year. Following a meeting of the high-level group of the Union State’s Council of Ministers, Krutoy stated that a fundamental agreement had been reached, and Lukashenka and Putin will officially launch the project at the upcoming session of the Union State Supreme State Council.

The abolition of intra-network (regional) roaming will allow subscribers to freely use mobile services while in a “guest” region (in this case, Belarus and Russia) at the same rates as in their home region. Moscow and Minsk political elites have been discussing this project for years, presenting it as a flagship example of integration and overcoming barriers in the communication-information sphere.

In reality, the project has been in the works for a long time. Belarusian and Russian officials have been debating and discussing it for more than six years. Back in August 2018, the Ministries of Communications of both countries reportedly reached a “principled” agreement on the matter. The plan was to sign a “roadmap” to abolish roaming no later than September 2019. But progress stalled, primarily because both sides struggled to agree on the financial implications for operators and subscribers (mostly operators, of course) and what the “fair” tariffs should be.

Finally, on December 25, 2019, the leaders of the Union State announced some good pre-holiday news: they had signed the long-awaited “roadmap” to abolish roaming. However, nearly five years later, little has changed. So will roaming finally be abolished in early 2025? It’s quite possible. And will this be framed as another significant step toward closer integration? Yes, it will.

The irony here is that ordinary citizens — unlike high-ranking officials in Belarus and Russia — stopped thinking about roaming long ago. Most people don’t even see it as a pressing issue anymore. The vast majority of users of smartphones and other communication devices typically don’t even activate roaming services from their providers and rarely rely on international mobile networks. For voice and video calls, they commonly use cross-platform messaging apps like Telegram, Signal, Viber, WhatsApp, and others.

This case clearly illustrates a broader trend: integration issues are often “solved” at the highest level once they’ve already been informally resolved at the grassroots level, or when they have simply lost relevance.

Interestingly, despite the “advanced” integration of Belarus and Russia, other entities like the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) or the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are not lagging behind. They, too, are addressing the roaming issue. The Eurasian Economic Commission plans to present a proposal for “fair” roaming tariffs within the EAEU by the end of the year.

Amid these developments, Lukashenka announced the creation of a Belarusian mobile phone, stating that it’s “mandatory to make one because gadgets today, as we’ve seen recently, have been turned into weapons. It’s now a matter of national security.”