What could turn out to be the most awesome foreign player in the international access market in European Russia is now fully up and running. Romantis is a German venture based on the block-booking of most of the capacity on the Intelsat V satellite pointing at the Commonwealth of Independent States. It provides point to point satellite communication between any two points in the Commonwealth within the Intelsat footprint as well as international access via a Deutsche Telekom AG switch located in Berlin. The Kiev operation began last month and the company’s Moscow office has been providing speech and television capacity since January. Romantis has 15 large corporate customers including Masterfoods. Romantis Moscow director general Peter Lautenbach says though the Moscow market is now highly competitive, outside the Russian capital, Romantis will be able to offer the most competitive tariffs to corporate customers. Price will start from $1 per minute for point to point communications inside Russia. Terminals st art at $44,000.
