AT&T Co’s Tridom has announced what it describes as a multi-million dollar multi-year contract with the Sberbank Russian Federation and a related deal with the Special Research Bureau of the Moscow Institute of Power Engineering, the bank’s network integrator. Sberbank has ordered a Very Small Aperture Terminal system for data communications network which will connect the bank’s regional offices to its main data centre in Moscow. Installation is expected to begin next month, and it is projected that 79 regional offices will be connected by the end of the year. The Sberbank has 1,200 offices in Russia and 30,000 branches. Under the agreements, the institute will supply antennas and satellite-tracking equipment and will work with AT&T Tridom to adapt the Very Small Aperture Terminal system to operate using Russia’s Gorizont satellites. The institute is also obliged to install and support the remote Very Small Apeture Terminal earth stations and to manage the hub station at its control centre at Bears Lake, outside Moscow. The system is centred around the Bear’s Lake hub which will have connections via digital leased lines to the bank’s Moscow data centre and can transmit and receive messages from all the bank branches included in the scheme.
