RUSSIA'S TELECOM ROUNDS

RUSSIAN telecoms operators will have to use foreign technology to comply with a law on storing data, two industry sources with knowledge of the matter said, even though, Vladimir Putin told the government to ensure local companies produced the equipment.

The law requires operators to store the content of users phones and text messages for six months to aid the security services.

President Putin wanted home grown technology to be used to perform the task, to boost the domestic tech industry and make telecom systems less dependent on Western equipment.

But faced with a tight deadline to storing the vast amounts of information, and in the absence of suitable Russian hardware, operators will have no choice but to use equipment made by foreign firms including Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Huawei, according to the sources.

In having to resort to buying in hardware from abroad, Russia is encountering the same issues as other countries including the  United States :

The tech sector is a multinational endeavour and developing sophisticated systems using only grown gear is fraught with difficulties.

''It's a good idea in theory substitute imports, but you but you need to make a realistic assessment of the capacity of Russian firms,'' said Irma Levovaof Moscow based independent  think-tank  the Institute for the study of the Internet.

"The money spent implementing this law won't stay in the Russian economy but will end up abroad.''

Adding to the problems besetting implementation of the of the law, no Russian telecoms operator has the necessary infrastructure in place, despite a July 1, deadline to start storing users data, according to the two telecoms industry sources.

Russia's ministry for digital development and communications did not respond for comment about the use of foreign hardware or about whether telecoms firms have the necessary infrastructure in place.