The Sprint International arm of US Sprint Communications Inc has signed a preliminary agreement with the Central Telegraph of the Soviet Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and the Institute of Electronics & Computer Science of the Latvian Academy of Sciences to take the Telenet packet-switched network into the Soviet Union. The trio will form a joint venture, Telenet USSR, which will start out by establishing and operating a switching centre in Moscow, to be interconnected with the SprintNet International data network, provide SprintMail electronic messaging service within the Soviet Union and internationally, and distribute Sprint International’s Telenet line of data communications equipment in the USSR. Details of the joint venture, including financing and business plans, will be finalised by mid-1990 with a view to starting operations in late 1990, subject to Soviet and US government approvals.Central Telegraph provides international and long-distance public telex, telegram and low-speed data communications services in the USSR and has some 120,000 domestic telex and 4,000 international customers. The Institute of Electronics & Computer Science specialises in networking technology, and has developed packet switching hardware and software.
