ISP: Decree is possibly to close my business down

According to Yury Zisser, director general of Reliable Software company and the director and owner of TUT.by internet portal, he cannot see anyone who could lose because of the internet regulation by the presidential administration.

Yury Zisser: “I have looked at it quite stringently, but I have not seen anyone who will lose. Actually, the draft regulation that we saw two months ago and what has been presented now as a result are two completely different things. Within this period of time, the state has revised the draft thoroughly to make it much better. It has no repressive provisions, while state agencies are obliged to run their web sites. In fact, this is the first step towards an e-government. The identification of users has been replaced with the identification of technical equipment, thus returning Wi-Fi і WiMAX to the legal field”.

Yury Zisser notes that some paragraphs of the decree will be adjusted by a resolution of the Council of Ministers. So, it is still hard to say today what exactly is going to happen after July 1.

Maxim Liaudanski, director general of Aichyna Plus company, also admits the decree differs greatly from the draft two months back. But, there are still controversial provisions that force ISPs seek explanations from various ministries and state agencies. He says that the presidential decree is yet to change with some new additions and amendments. "Every documents has a goal. Depending on this goal, those who are to change will act accordingly. If the aim is to develop, this is one thing. If the aim is to punish, amendments will be different.

At the same time, he admits there are problems in the internet that await being tackled for a long time.

Maxim Liaudanski: “There is a problem, indeed. 90% of traffic flows abroad. But the questions remains if the decree is capable of resolving it. On the other hand, the majority of big businesses is in the state-owned sector, which is controlled directly by the president.Perhaps, it makes sense to obey orders of an enterprise director. Otherwise, nobody will do anything without director's order”.

Different from the previous experts, Andrei Bastunets -- a deputy chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) -- does not see those who will take advantage of this decree. On the opposite, both ISPs and users will lose. And all the adjustments of the decrees by other ministries will take place in the same system of references that were outlined in the decree. In his view, this is a system of restrictions. But the development of the internet should follow a different direction -- not towards restrictions.

Andrei Bastunets: “One should take into account that the transnational means of communication and information should be discussed and coordinated with the European nations. It is necessary to promote the development of internet and search for possibilities to make it cheaper in order to expand communication channels and to increase the number of communication gateways”.

In his view, if the decree makes the internet cheaper, it will be its single advantage. But this could have been achieved without the aforementioned regulation.