Between August and October 2026, Russian regulators and emergency services implemented widespread mobile internet outages across several regions. Affected areas included Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Samara, and Novosibirsk, with major operators such as MTS, MegaFon, Beeline, and Tele2 forced to restrict data services.
These measures were officially justified as a countermeasure against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that allegedly utilize commercial SIM cards for navigation and targeting. The shutdowns resulted in significant disruptions to urban digital infrastructure, including the failure of online cash registers, logistics, delivery services, and public transport payment systems.
From a network engineering perspective, the reliance on total internet blackouts is criticized as a technical failure. Experts note that drones do not require a constant mobile internet connection for the majority of their flight path, as they operate autonomously for over 95% of their routes without needing external IP traffic.
