Russian Government wants to control all WiFi devices
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
On 14 April 2008, Fontanka.ru online newspaper reported that
Rossvyazokhrankultura, the Russian Mass Media, Communications and Cultural
Protection Service, intends to ask for the mandatory registration of all
WiFi devices, including personal home networks, notebook computers, mobile
telephones and PDAs.
Vladimir Karpov, the deputy director of the agency’s communications
monitoring division, told the newspaper that wireless Internet users will
have to register any electronics using WiFi technology. The registration
could take as long as ten days for standard devices like PDAs and laptops
and the noncompliance may bring forth the confiscation of the respective
equipment. Users wanting to operate a wireless access point or a
WiFi-enabled home router must obtain a license which might need, in certain
areas, a special approval from the Federal Security Service.
While in most countries there is free and open access to WiFi networking
with certain limitations on the maximum signal strength of the
transmissions, the Russian agency’s opinion might reverse previous decisions
of the Russian government. In 2004, the State panel for Radio Frequencies
gave open rights to a narrow band of spectrum for indoor wireless networks
and in July 2007, mobile wireless devices were excluded from the list of
electronics requiring registration.
Rossvyazokhrankultura, the author of this bureaucratic, unprofessional and
extremely unrealistic policy, was created in 2007 by the merger of the
Russian media and telecommunications regulatory bodies. “Similar conclusions
speak to the complete professional deterioration of a unified regulatory
agency. It is now engaged in all manner of fields – protecting cultural
riches, registering mass-media outlets, control of legal compliance on
personal data, monitoring communications, allocation of radio frequencies
and so on. The organization is led by a metallurgic engineer by background.
It is unlikely that he can simultaneously manage communications personnel,
fine art experts, journalists and attorneys” stated an anonymous industry
specialist.
Russian Agency Demands Registration for all Wi-Fi Devices (15.04.2008)
Wifi ? Niet! (15.04.2008)
http://blog.quintarelli.it/blog/2008/04/wifi-niet.html
How to kill wireless, Russian style (16.04.2008)
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10007848o-2000331777b,00.htm?new_comment
Russian government enacts Byzantine WiFi regulations (16.04.2008)
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080416-russian-government-enacts-byzantine-wifi-regulations.html