23 December 2025 18:37 Society: Technical readiness of the duplicate of Gagarin Avenue in Nizhny Novgorod reached 43%. This was reported by Deputy Governor Sergey Morozov at the final meeting of the regional government. Recall that the project is being carried out under a concession agreement signed in December 2023. The total length of the new highway will be more than 12.3 kilometers. Construction is divided into four stages, and the total investment amounts to 64.4 billion rubles. The concession term is 30 years and 9 months, of which 4.5 years are allocated specifically to construction. In November it was reported that, as part of the third phase of the project, the contractor completed the first laying of the top layer of asphalt concrete on the overpass that is part of the interchange over the R-158 highway. In addition, Sergey Morozov noted that in 2025 in the Nizhny Novgorod region, under the national project "Infrastructure for Life," more than 745 kilometers of roads were repaired, compared with an initial plan of 626 kilometers. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" has a Telegram channel. Subscribe to stay informed of the main events, exclusive materials and timely updates. Copyright © 1999—2025 NIA "Nizhny Novgorod." When reprinting, a hyperlink to NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" is mandatory. This resource may contain 18+ materials.

      Equipping partner points of sale began with a MegaFon and Yota salon located on the premises of the FoodCity agrocluster in Moscow. In total, in January it is planned to install the systems in more than 800 franchised stores operating under the operators’ brands.

      The program to install bio-terminals was launched in June 2025 with the support of the equipment manufacturer Ovision. MegaFon became the first operator in the telecom market to implement such technologies in its salons. In six months it was possible to equip all its own retail outlets located in locations with high traffic of foreign nationals. Now it is the turn of partner retail.

      The introduction of the EBS considerably simplifies the customer journey for purchasing SIM cards by foreign nationals or stateless persons. To conclude a contract for communication services, these categories of customers must obtain an individual insurance account number (SNILS), create a verified account on the Gosuslugi portal and register their biometrics at a bank branch. The operator is obliged to verify the customer through the system, and only after all data are checked will the SIM card be activated.

      “The combination of software and hardware solutions in the bio-terminal makes any kind of substitution when issuing a SIM card impossible,” says Ovision CEO Oleg Novikov. “These include, for example, built-in algorithms for checking facial ‘liveness’ (including silicone masks). Also, only an authorized person has access to the terminal, which guarantees protection of data from unauthorized access, and verification is carried out through the GIS EBS, which guarantees the identity of the presented biometric sample.”

      Before salons are equipped with terminals, the biometric verification of a foreign citizen is carried out on the Gosuslugi portal. This method of verifying subscribers’ biometrics is a temporary measure provided for by an order of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media. The text of the document gives operators a deferral until December 31 of the current year so that market participants have time to equip their salons with the biometric equipment required by law.

      “We are fully ready to transition to the designated solution in strict accordance with current legislation. For our customers who are foreign nationals the SIM card activation process is greatly simplified. Now the buyer is not required to take any additional actions; it is enough simply to look into the bio-terminal when activating the SIM card. There are no language barrier difficulties, and the contract-signing process itself is accelerated. Under the temporary scheme, concluding the contract can take up to half an hour, whereas using the bio-terminal — just over five minutes,” says MegaFon Development Department Director Igor Glebov.