Sovintel is one of the leading players in the Russian telecom and IT market. Formed in 1990, the company has been providing telephone, fax and data communication services.

Sovintel is owned by Rostelecom, Russia's leading long-distance operator, and the U.S. Global TeleSystems Group Inc., both partners having equal shares in the company. Among Sovintel's partners are AT&T, British Telecom and Cable & Wireless. The company talked to I.T. Russia about its operations and prospects in the market.

I.T. Russia: Sovintel is one of the oldest private companies in Russian telecoms. How has the situation in the market changed over the past decade with the arrival of new operators and new services? Has it become more competitive?

Sovintel: Competition in the Russian telecoms market has always been tough. With the arrival of new operators and new services it only gets tougher.

ITR: What Internet services does your company provide? In what way are those different from the services that other companies provide?

S: Our company provides all types of Internet access, such as dedicated private lines, high-speed Frame Relay access, ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), which is a high-bandwidth, low-delay multiplexing technique, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), which is a special technique for transmission of simultaneous voice, data and video information, and dialup Internet connection.

ITR: In what direction is the Internet developing in Russia? What new services could arrive in the nearest future?

S: In Russia, as in other countries, there is a tendency of stepping up the volumes of multimedia data transmitted via the Internet. Also, services and technologies on the basis of the IP protocol are further developing.

ITR: The world telecommunications market is developing rapidly. Is Sovintel planning to focus on traditional services or on introducing new services in Russia?

S: Sovintel continues providing traditional telecom services, but it also closely follows the most recent technologic developments to constantly offer new telecom solutions to its customers.

ITR: At the moment, Sovintel's main operations are in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Does the company have a strategy to increase its presence in the country's other regions?

S: We also have hubs and provide local, domestic long distance and international telephone services in Pskov, Kaliningrad, Novgorod, Perm, Yekaterinburg and the republic of Karelia. In the nearest future, we will introduce telephone services in Krasnodar and Kaluga.

ITR: Last month, Sovintel opened the first Russian Internet store for communication services. How successful has it been? What prospects does it have?

S: The store's initial weeks of operations have demonstrated that the project is likely to be quite a success.