The Ministry of Communications is planning to issue a programme called the people’s telephone according to the minister Vladimir Bulgak. The plan will be to give more people the opportunity to get a telephone and to go some way towards meeting the huge demand for new telephone lines. Bulgak said the subscription fee will lie somewhere in between the current commercial and non-commercial installation rates and will guarantee a telephone line within about a year. According to Bulgak, the idea of the people’s telephone was chosen as an alternative to raising the local telephone tariffs which he said would be inefficient, given the limited resources of most Russian households. Since this plan will come as part of several presidential initiatives, it will be included in a presidential fund. The fund will be used for subscribers’ money and will be open to domestic and foreign investors.
