Labeling international calls could cost telecom operators RUB 3 billion. per year. It is planned that calls from foreign numbers will be marked starting March 1, 2027. The Ministry of Digital Development does not expect large expenses on the part of operators, pointing out that the majority already have the necessary functionality. Operators do not agree with this assessment, especially in light of the 30% increase in the number of international calls after the blocking of foreign instant messengers.
The costs of telecom operators for marking international calls will amount to 3 billion rubles. for one year, follows from the summary report to the draft resolution of the Ministry of Digital Development on the rules for marking relevant calls. The document was published on the regulation.gov portal. It is proposed to introduce such markings from March 1, 2027. It is planned that international calls will at least be signed with the words “foreign call”, and “if technically possible” – also with the short name of the state from which the call originates, follows from the draft resolution.
From September 1, 2025, telecom operators must label calls from legal entities. For the Big Four operators, labeling costs an average of 30 kopecks. for attempting a call. In this case, the fee is charged regardless of whether the connection has been established or not. Marking of international calls is introduced by the second anti-fraud package of amendments to the legislation. In addition, it provides for the opportunity for citizens to establish a self-ban on such calls.
Earlier, Kommersant wrote that the authorities have finalized the second package of anti-fraud amendments to the legislation. In particular, it included measures to regulate SIM cards, the creation of a unified database of IMEI numbers of citizens’ devices, a ban on hosting providers to provide resources for hosting VPN services and other measures (see “Kommersant” dated June 8). On June 26, the law was signed by Vladimir Putin.
The Ministry of Digital Development assures that this assessment of the costs of telecom operators for marking international calls “is based on a formal criterion.” “The Ministry of Digital Development will separately collect data on possible costs from operators and analyze them. The Ministry does not expect large expenses on the part of telecom companies, since most telecom operators already have this functionality ready,” the Ministry of Digital Development says.
Operators do not agree with this assessment of their project costs. Against the backdrop of blocking of voice calls in instant messengers, the number of international calls increased by about 30%, they say at T2. Voice calls to Telegram and WhatsApp (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) were blocked in August 2025, which was argued that the messengers are mainly used by scammers (see “Kommersant” dated August 11, 2025).
“The launch of the tagging service as a new product required significant investment due to the need to install new equipment; tagging of international calls became another additional setting based on this resource-intensive launch,” says T2.
VimpelCom emphasizes that it already informs subscribers about international calls: “Such decisions require significant technical, organizational and financial resources from telecom operators. Moreover, they are sold at the operators’ own expense and without a separate fee for subscribers.” MegaFon adds that marking international calls with the country “will require refinement of existing solutions and additional investments in network infrastructure.” At the same time, the labeling system has already been implemented by operators, the companies say. MTS declined to comment.
Labeling does not provide “strong authentication”, but only displays a label based on data from the operator’s database, recalls Sergey Kudryashov, partner in the Digital Transformation practice at Strategy Partners. In his opinion, this measure can increase user confidence in legal calls from abroad, but “telephone fraud will only be partially limited.” “Cryptographic call authentication would provide a real anti-fraud effect,” continues Mr. Kudryashov. With this scheme, the operator from whom the call originates signs it with a digital certificate, assuring that the number really belongs to the caller. The receiving party verifies this signature and assigns a trust level to the call. This scheme, adopted, for example, in the United States, blocks one of the main fraudulent methods – number substitution, the expert says.
