Anglo-German telecommunications supplier GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd is on the verge of introducing a radical new service for the hard currency-paying business community in Moscow. From February, its Russian joint venture company Comstar will introduce a new service which could eventually provide any company located inside the Moscow ring road with a direct, reasonably-priced and trouble-free international telephone line. Comstar is GEC Plessey in partnership with the Moscow City Telephone Network Administration which controls all local telephone exchanges in the Russian capital. The joint venture has installed System X switches, the type used by British Telecommunications Plc, throughout the UK, at two local exchanges in central South East Moscow (230 and 952). The new exchanges will be linked by fibre optic cable and calls will be routed out of Moscow via satellite, completely avoiding the hopelessly-congested international exchange. Comstar is leasing satellite capacity on Intelsat through the Soviet organisation PA Cosmos. All non-satellite calls to and from the former Soviet Union and the West must pass through the international telephone exchange. All outgoing calls must be booked in advance with an operator. For direct access to the international exchange customers are charged between $15,000 and $20,000. Line rental is about $110 per quarter. But these users still must then compete with the rest of the world for one of the 50 circuits that connect the former Soviet Union with the rest of the Western world. At peak times this can take over an hour. Services using Intelsat satellite capacity are offered by several Moscow-based operations but these all charge very high traffic costs. Although prices are yet to be announced and still to be approved by the GEC Plessey board, a spokesman for Comstar says that the company plans to charge considerably less than the Soviet state phone company or other carriers for international voice services. Currently, international line holders are expected to pay approximately $3.50 per minute (6 hard roubles) traffic costs and about $100 per quarter line rental. Comstar customers will pay considerably lower traffic costs. If the tariff was around $2 per minute, as Comstar insiders have hinted, this would be the cheapest hassle-free voice service out of the Russian capital. Customers which already have one of the two Moscow numbers will pay no connection fee. For those on different numbers, no prices have been fixed for connection but the cost is expected to be no more than 10% of the current cost of an international line. As a joint venture with the Moscow City Telephone Network Administration the company potentially has access to every Moscow district telephone exchange. From February, Comstar will be able to support 1,000 lines and within 12 months the company expects to add another six exchanges to the scheme – subsequent expansion will depend on demand.
– Robert Farish, Moscow Computer News
