The Lithuanian government has received a $35m loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development which will be used, among other things, to introduce local telephone billing in the country: the government is also talking to the World Bank and other development bodies: Lithuanian Telecom has a 10-year programme that has it increasing the number of fixed lines by 50,000 every year.
LM Ericsson Telefon AB has opened an office in Moscow and plans to establish representation in other cities across Russia: it has recently signed contracts with AO Nizhnevartovskneftegas in Nizhnevartovsk, AO Yuganskneftegas in Neftyugansk, Primorsky steamship line in Nakhodka and also has a project to develop a telecommunications system along the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline; Ericsson has plans to manufacture, or at least assemble, in Russia and has signed a contract with AO Uralskiye Zavody in the Urals on the joint production of Ericsson telecommunications equipment at the plant.
Comstar has installed a local Integrated Services Digital Network at Sheremetevo-2 airport: the network is a segment of the Comstar network that covers various parts of Moscow; a GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd digital exchange station was installed in the airport connected with 19-mile optical cable to Comstar’s downtown Moscow offices.
Westbalt Telecom, the local and inter-city operator for the Kalingrad area and first non-state venture to be granted operator status in Russia in 1992, has officially begun commercial operations: it is a joint venture between France Telecom, the local Electrosvyaz organisation and a Kaliningrad company called Balikom; the network uses an Alcatel Bell S-12 digital switch, that can handle 1,500 channels.
St Petersburg-based LenBell, a joint venture between Alcatel SA’s Belgium-based Alcatel Bell Telephone and Russian organisations NIIETU and Concern Telekom, has sold an S-12 switch to the Moscow Mayor’s office supporting 2,000 lines, to be used as a PABX; it will be inauguratd at the end of the month. – o – Informcosmos has launched the first Express satellite, one of the new generation of Russian satellites, into commercial operation from a site in Baikonur: 10 Express satellites will replace the now outdated Gorizont satellites; one Express has three to four times the capacity of a Gorizont, and can handle around 3,000 telephone channels. – o – Rostelecom will open an international telephone exchange in Khabarovsk this month that will route traffic between a radio relay link between Moscow and Khabarovsk, and fibre optic cables from Khabarovsk to Japan and Korea.
Italtel SpA has installed a digital switch and base stations for a Groupe Speciale Mobile network in Yakutsk under a $4m contract: later this year, it will deliver digital cellular equipment to five other cities in that region, including Tyumen, Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, Novy Urengoy and Khanty-Mansiysk.
