Microsoft will renew conference calls licenses for Russian schools and universities for freeScience and technology02:40 | 11 October 2023

Microsoft continues to provide free licenses for its Teams video conferencing service to Russian educational institutions. However, this is causing protests from developers of Russian video conferencing platforms such as IVA Technologies, who are calling for a ban on the use of foreign video conferencing services among schools and universities.

By using Teams, organizations are violating the law on personal data, which requires such data to be stored in Russia. Companies like Zoom use paid versions of the service, and the business communications industry remains loyal to Zoom.

IVA Technologies is not ready to provide free video conferencing products to educational institutions.

TrueConf offers a free version of TrueConf Server for 50 subscribers and academic licenses for educational institutions at a discount of up to 50%. The DION platform takes into account interaction with schools but does not specify the conditions. Russian video conferencing server solutions manufacturer VINTEO supports banning Teams in schools and universities for security reasons.

Russian suppliers are ready to replace Teams in educational institutions, but this requires structural solutions, including the creation of cloud services.

IT expert Vadim Plyossky states that modern video conferencing systems have a client-server architecture and the best communication quality is provided through servers located in Russia.

In August 2023, Microsoft informed its enterprise customers that licenses for its products would only be extended until the end of the current term, and that license renewal would no longer be possible after September 30, 2023. Microsoft’s Russian office did not comment on a possible revision of this decision.