Stationary caretaker: a record for the number of home Internet connections has been set in the Russian Federation

Russia has recorded a record increase in home Internet connections amid mobile outages. In the third quarter, the number of new users increased by 500,000, TMT Consulting estimated. Representatives of leading Russian providers, including Rostelecom and MTS, also speak about the increased demand. Among the subscribers are parents of schoolchildren who need reliable Internet for online classes, summer residents and residents of low—rise buildings. In the near future, the growth rate of the number will continue to increase, experts believe.

Why do Russians connect to their home Internet en masse

In the third quarter of 2025, the number of fixed Internet users in Russia increased by 500,000 compared to the previous three months, TMT Consulting, a company that regularly monitors the subscriber base, told Izvestia. As of the end of November, there were 38.46 million connected households in the country.

—An increase of half a million subscribers is almost an absolute record for the wired Internet market, such a pace has been observed since at least 2010," said Elena Krylova, an analyst at the company.

According to her, in the first quarter, the growth of the fixed BROADBAND subscriber base amounted to 170 thousand subscribers, in the second quarter — 200 thousand. The main increase was accounted for by Rostelecom (237 thousand subscribers) and MTS (169 thousand), the company added.

The main reason was the unstable operation of the mobile Internet, said Elena Krylova. The largest increase in the subscriber base was observed in the south of Russia, in the Urals, in the Volga region and in the Moscow region. Among the new users are people who previously used only mobile Internet and faced interruptions, residents of suburban low—rise buildings and summer residents, as well as parents of schoolchildren who need stable access to online classes, said Elena Krylova.

"Parents of schoolchildren and students were in a hurry to connect to the beginning of the school year, the queue at different providers could be up to several weeks," she noted.

Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Finance.

The situation with periodic restrictions on mobile Internet has highlighted the competitive advantages of fixed access and WiFi, such as high data transfer speeds, lack of traffic limits, reliability and stability of the service, the Rostelecom press service noted.

"In recent months, we have noted an increase in confirmed home Internet connection requests by an average of 12-15% year—on—year across the country, with higher dynamics in some regions," the company told Izvestia.

They also record an increase in the number of applications from businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. Such customers are switching to using the fixed Internet to connect their information systems, cash registers and distribute WiFi to visitors, the company added.

According to the results of the third quarter of 2025, the MTS fixed Internet subscriber base increased by 6% compared to the same period in 2024 and by 3% compared to the second quarter of 2025, the company told Izvestia. In the second quarter, the increase compared to the first quarter was only 1%.

— This is organic growth, which is primarily provided by balanced marketing activities in the regions. The situation with mobile Internet has also affected the growth of the subscriber base in individual cities, MTS told Izvestia.

They added that the operator's networks have sufficient capacity, their capacity was expanded in 2020-2021, and since 2024, the company has launched a large-scale project to modernize the network infrastructure in various regions.

MegaFon's broadband access business is showing growth among both private and corporate clients, its press service said. The main reasons are the active development of its own infrastructure, sales channels, as well as the scaling of projects for the development of wired Internet based on FVNO (fixed virtual operator), they noted.

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How has the increased demand for fixed access affected tariffs

Market participants began to notice an increase in demand for home Internet services in the middle of this year. In June-July 2025, the demand for Wi-Fi routers in the Russian Federation doubled compared to the same period in 2024, their sellers and operators told Izvestia. In particular, sales of wired Wi-Fi routers at Wildberries increased by 134% in the summer.

By 2025, the mobile Internet in Russia has not caused doubts about reliability and speed, said Leonid Konik, a partner at ComNews Research. And just like in the 2010s, Russians began to abandon home phones en masse, in the 2020s, many turned off their home Internet, he noted. But disconnections of the mobile Internet led to the fact that people began to return to a fixed connection. Not only all fixed-access providers, but also satellite Internet operators are talking about the surge in connections, the expert added.

"Fixed—line Internet providers are trying to take advantage of the situation and raise tariffs, which have remained relatively stable for a decade," says Leonid Konik. — In particular, this is reflected in the offers of new packages with higher access speeds, although few people realize that even video services do not need more than 20 Mbit/s.

In his opinion, in the fourth quarter of 2025, at least 650-700 thousand new home Internet subscribers can be expected to appear in the Russian Federation.

When the situation with mobile Internet stabilizes, it is difficult to predict, so the increased demand for fixed will continue in the future, says Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily. The interest in it is due not only to the periodic lack of mobile access to the Network, but also to failures in voice communication — for example, when it is impossible to make a call over a cellular network, Voice over WiFi technology allows it, which does not work without fixed access, the expert concluded.