Все новости от 14 сентября 1999 г.

Transtelecom to become second national operator

Transtelecom, a company created in 1997 by the Russian railway authorities, has applied to the State Committee for Telecommunications for a license for the provision of local, regional, intercity and international voice communications services. According to advisor to Transtelecom president Vyacheslav Smirnov, the application has already been considered and Transtelekom expects a positive decision is to be made soon. In the meantime, the company is building a Russia-wide digital backbone network. The system will be based on 35,000 km of fiber optic cables as well as VSAT and other telecommunications equipment. The hardware and cables are to be supplied by Lucent Technologies, Alcatel, NEC, GPT, Siemens, Ericsson, Nera and Pirelli. The project runs until the year 2001 and is valued at about $1 billion. The company has already invested some $170 million. Another $800 million are expected to be attracted in the form of bank loans, and to be derived from the provision of telecommunications services on already-built parts of the network and from the sale of the shares the Ministry of Railways owns in different companies.