The General Staff is considering the possibility of turning off mobile communication or significantly reducing the speed of mobile Internet during air alerts.
There are currently enough measures preventing Russia from using the Ukrainian mobile network for drone navigation, but the situation may change in the future.
“There is a sense in such measures of turning off the mobile network. The extent to which it is necessary depends on the specific situation and conditions. Therefore, it may be advisable in some cases to apply a reduction in the speed of the mobile Internet to limit the operation of UAVs in FPV mode, – the General Staff noted.
At the same time, they specified that everything depends on the type of drones used by the Russian army. Drones without a camera do not need high Internet speed, while devices with cameras need high-speed data transfer, so in this case “it makes sense to apply restrictions on mobile communication”.
Electronic warfare units do not interfere with mobile communications during enemy air attacks, as they have neither the technical capabilities nor the need to do so. At the same time, under certain conditions, such a need may appear already at the level of mobile operators.
“We do not plan to create tools that have a large-scale impact on the operation of the mobile Internet. It is much easier to do this limited at the expense of our mobile operators. This issue does not apply to EB, and we are not directly involved in it. We do not have EW tools that suppress mobile communication, and we do not plan to do so, because it is technically very difficult.
Mobile operators have a large number of bands, and mobile communication itself is arranged in such a way that it is very difficult to suppress it. Yes, we have the means to block communication within a room or 50-100 meters, but suppressing communication for 1-2 kilometers is very difficult. This is more of a question for telecom operators, – added in the department.
