Residents in dozens of Russian communities are being forced to rely solely on mobile service with strict data caps and sharp slowdowns once those limits are reached.
Russia is facing a worsening high-speed internet access problem as much of its fiber-optic network reaches the end of its service life and new fiber is scarcely allocated for civilian needs, Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service said .
In 2025, the warranty period expired for more than half of the trunk cables on the West–East corridor.
The agency said that by 2030 Russia will need to replace more than 400,000 kilometers of fiber laid in the early 2000s. The cost of upgrading the infrastructure is estimated in the hundreds of billions of rubles, while the capacity of key backbones is already nearing critical limits.
Amid this shortfall, fiber imports from China have surged. In 2025, Russia consumed about 10% of the global supply of optical fiber - driven in large part by mass production of tethered FPV drones resistant to electronic warfare.
Meanwhile, Russia’s civilian population, especially in rural areas, is being left without reliable internet. Residents of dozens of localities are forced to use only mobile service with data limits and sharp speed drops after those limits are exhausted.
The Kremlin has also backed mass internet shutdowns. A spokesperson for Vladimir Putin has said restrictions on mobile internet - introduced ostensibly to counter drones - are “fully justified and necessary.”
