Internet users to pay for limiting of access to information

All expenses connected with filtering of "prohibited" information would be paid by common users.

Since September 1 Internet providers must have a possibility to filter “prohibited” infromation in Bynet, naviny.by informs.

As "Belorusskiye novosti" were told by the press-service of Beltelecom, the main telecoms operator of the country is always prepared.

"There is the time of performance, September 1, and no one had cancelled that. Naturally, as a state provider we are not going to violate the decree. Software, equipment has been bought, we have employees who are responsible for that," the company’s representatives said.

We remind that right after the decree on Internet-filtering came into force, Beltelecom stated that they are ready to filter Bynet any day.

"It is true, we prepared all he measures for Internet filtering since July 1. But we are to render this service since September 1 according to the law," Beltelecom explained.

Anyway, we would be able to see everything in a few days. “Measures are taken, you will see everything on September 1,” said representatives of the administration of “Delovaya set” Internet service provider.

However it is possible that since September 1 we are going to face not only the expected filtering, but also some new circumstances.

As noted by providers, expenses for equipment for Internet-filtering are costly. For instance, Belinfonet has spent almost $100,000 for everything.

"The question is, what else would be invented. Now they are speaking about manual setup of filtration options. If it would be allowed to use automatic setup, expenses could be much higher," said Yury Bitna, director of Belinfonet company to "Belorusskiye Novosti".

"The major problem is extra expenses, which are not compensated by anything," said Maxim Lyaudanski, director of Ajchyna Plus telecommunications company to "Belorusskiye Novosti".

As said by him, the goals set by the decree on Internet filtering, are noble, but measures for their realization are stumbling.

"The idea is good. For instance, I do not want my child to visit some websites and receive unnecessary information. But means toward this end cannot be called the most successfully chosen," the expert said.

"Expenses for filtering operations have been shifted to providers, and providers in their turn will shift them on users," he explains. "If not, how should we repay expenditures?"

Maxim Lyaudanski adds that "because of Beltelecom’s dumping prices have increased fantastically. It means that users will suffer not from increase of tariffs for Internet services, most likely they are to receive fewer services or receive them in a worse quality. There are many variants of actions, and everything depends only on how deplorable the company’s financial position is".

Not only providers, but Internet-cafés are suffering from the Decree #60. For the second month they cannot render services to people without identity documents.

"We remind that since July 1 one can make use of Internet-cafés services only after showing an identity document. According to different estimations, the number of clients of such institutions has dropped by 30-50%. The level of demand was down twofold," said a director of a large Internet-café in the capital of Belarus. "Naturally, profits have dropped two times, which has made our enterprise economically irrational".

However, officials are blamed not only for short-sightedness in introducing novelties, but even for the lack of understanding of the issue.

It could be added that limitations imposed by Decree #60 and its by-laws seem savage to foreigners. And after that our high officials are trying to prove that we are situated in the heart of Europe…