MegaFon has launched a new trunk channel between Russia and China.

      MegaFon, together with China Telecom, has launched a new trunk communication channel between Khabarovsk and Hong Kong. Now, traffic from users to services travels along a shortened route to China without the need to cross several countries. Previously, traffic to a number of Chinese services took a longer international route: from users in Russia to European transport hubs, and then to China. Users from Siberia and the Far East experienced particularly significant delays: their requests first traveled across the entire country and Europe, despite the geographical proximity to the PRC. After the launch of the new Khabarovsk - Hong Kong channel, data is transmitted directly towards the China Telecom infrastructure. This reduces response time and increases connection stability in services where latency is particularly noticeable: messengers, marketplaces, and gaming platforms. Thanks to the new channel, their response time has been reduced by more than three times. "The Asian region is becoming as important for the Russian telecom market as the West. We see that user interest in Chinese messengers and marketplaces is growing: traffic in the first quarter of 2026 increased by almost 50% year-on-year. We are developing a system of alternative routes that enhances the reliability and quality of infrastructure, including for users in the eastern part of the country," noted MegaFon's technical director Alexey Titov.