Russian subscribers of the "big four" will remain without roaming in Canada

Due to sanctions, Canadian operators will soon stop providing roaming services to Russian Big Four subscribers. But, for example, cooperation with the Ural "Motive" will continue

Cellular operators from Canada have broken or are in the process of breaking roaming agreements with the largest Russian operators. RBC was told about this by sources in several companies. According to one of them, the reason is the introduction of sanctions by the Canadian government against Russian mobile operators. “We received notifications about the termination of the service, then one after another, local operators began to disconnect us from roaming,” the source said. Sources in two Russian companies called the situation a precedent - so far, in no country have roaming relations been broken off by all local operators at once.

Canada imposed sanctions against mobile operators MTS, MegaFon, T2 RTK Holding (provides services under the Tele2 brand) and VimpelCom (Beeline brand), as well as against a number of other companies and individuals in July this year. The explanation stated that these telecommunications companies are associated with the Russian military-industrial complex. The sanctions prohibit making transactions with the listed individuals and companies, as well as participating in any activity related to any of their property, providing them with financial or related services.

According to RBC's source in one of the major operators, until now, when roaming is turned off by one of the partners, the company could switch to another operator or transfer the traffic of its subscribers through an operator from some other country that has a roaming agreement with the disabled operator . But in the case of Canadian partners, the first option is impossible, since all operators in the country are breaking off relations, and the second option is technically impossible to organize quickly. “We just ran into a problem, we simply don’t have time to apply the option of working through operators from other countries, subscribers will definitely face a loss of connection,” the source says. “And if there is an operator in some country who decides to transmit the traffic of our subscribers, this can be calculated, there is a risk that such an operator will also be blocked.”

An interlocutor at another company indicated that subscribers will be able to receive communication services by connecting to Wi-Fi or buying SIM cards from local operators, but without roaming they will not be able to receive SMS to a Russian number - for example, to authorize or confirm bank transactions. And no solution has yet been found for this problem.

A representative of MegaFon confirmed that the company had received a notice from Canadian operators about the suspension of cooperation. “Currently, for subscribers who are roaming in Canada, communication is available. We inform these customers about alternative ways to stay in touch,” he said.

The VimpelCom representative also says that their main roaming partners from Canada have sent notifications about the suspension of interaction regarding the provision of roaming services. “So far, the possibility of receiving communication services in roaming in Canada remains, but we proceed from the fact that in the near future all existing agreements will be suspended, which will entail a lack of communication for those of our customers who are located in the country. We are currently looking for a way out of this situation and are preparing information for customers,” he said. The representative of this company also pointed out that the suspension of agreements will make it impossible to provide communication services in roaming for subscribers from Canada who are in Russia. He is not aware of other countries where Russian operators have encountered a similar problem. In response to the question

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The representative of "T2 RTK Holding" says that their subscribers have access to communication services in roaming in Canada. “We are negotiating and doing everything possible to minimize the consequences of the most negative scenario. We are confident that the situation in Canada will not affect the availability of services in other countries, ”he said, refusing to explain with which of the Canadian operators roaming agreements are being maintained and whether any of the local companies have notified about their break. A spokesman for MTS declined to comment.

There are three national mobile operators in Canada - Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. (Bell) and TELUS Corporation - and several smaller ones: Vidéotron ltée, Freedom Mobile, Saskatchewan Telecommunications (SaskTel), Eastlink Inc. and etc.

Representative of BCE Inc. RBC explained that the decision to limit roaming for the Big Four was made "in order to comply with the Canadian government's sanctions against Russia." He noted that the company continues to provide roaming services to the Russian operator Yekaterinburg-2000 (provides services under the Motiv brand in the Sverdlovsk and Kurgan regions, Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous regions).

RBC sent a request to other local operators. Quebecor, which owns Vidéotron and Freedom Mobile, could not be contacted.

How many subscribers will be affected by the problem

There is no up-to-date data on how many Russians enter Canada. In the first quarter of 2022, there were 125 of them, according to the data of the FSB border service. But these statistics only take into account those who flew directly to Canada, and not through any other countries. At the same time, 1.46 thousand Canadian citizens visited Russia in the first half of 2023.

According to RBC's source in one of the Russian operators, about 10,000 Big Four subscribers are currently using roaming in Canada. Basically, these are those who go to Canada on a business trip, or those who relocated there. RBC's source in another Russian operator called the number of subscribers in roaming in Canada "extremely small", and the problem itself was not large-scale.