Russian Ministries aim to spread internet access by standardization; Soros among the benefactors
The Ministry of Science & Technology in Minnauki, the State Committee for Higher Education in Goskomvuz, the Russian Fund for Basic Research and the Russian Academy of Sciences have decided to standardize and integrate their individual telecommunications projects to help expand Internet access at Russian universities. Billionaire financier George Soros says his foundation will invest $1.5m to provide Internet connections for Russian schools, hospitals, museums and research institutes. In 1994, the Soros Foundation funded the connection of several Moscow-based universities to the Internet.
Muscovites in Nikulino must go to Comstar joint venture for their numbers; savings promised
Comstar, a joint venture between GPT Communications Systems Ltd of the UK and the Moscow City Telephone Network has become the sole source of new phone numbers in the of Moscow’s Nikulino district after the existing phone network in the district reached capacity. Though residents in the district must still pay an installation fee to their local telephone company, the issue of all new numbers is now sub-contracted to Comstar. All inter-city and international calls from these new numbers are now billed by Comstar, whose prices tend to be slightly higher than those of MMT/Rostelecoms. Comstar is negotiating with Moscow City and MMT to see if the idea can be applied to other regions.
Communications Ministry predicts 50% rise in foreign telecommunications investments this year
Russia’s Ministry of Communications estimates that foreign investments in Russian telecommunications in 1996 will increase by about 50% this year and will exceed $750m. The ministry said the increase is due to the beginning of the 50×50 project, the state public network investment plan, and the modernization of the Moscow City telephone network. The biggest investors last year were Japanese, German, Italian and Swedish companies, among them Siemens AG, which provided $40m in commercial loans for the creation of international switching centres and a cellular network in Moscow, and L M Ericsson Telefon AB, which invested about $60m in the cellular networks.
Kazakhstan’s ALSI wins first stage of tender with help from Hewlett
Kazakhstan’s largest computer company, Almaty-based ALSI, has won the first stage of a large tender announced by the Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan. It was financed by loans totalling $42m from the International Bank for Reconstruction & Development and the World Bank. The tender is for the purchase of office automation equipment and computers for the administrations of five cities and two regions of Kazakhstan. ALSI won the tender in co-operation with Hewlett-Packard Co, beating the likes of IBM Corp, Dell Computer Corp, Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, Compagnie des Machines Bull SA and Compaq Computer Corp to the deal, each bidding through their local partners. Further stages of the project are expected to be announced soon.
Novell beats sales target in Russia by 5%; increased partners
Novell Inc says 1995 sales in Russia were $14.5m, exceeding target by 5%. Annual sales growth in the Commonwealth of Independent States region as a whole was 62% in 1995. The company has more than 300 business partners in the region with NetWare 3.12 accounting for 53% of total Novell revenues, NetWare 4.1 contributed 21%, and UnixWare 3.12, 1.7%.
Compaq will count the votes for the presidential election
Compaq Computer Corp’s Moscow office says it delivered around 7,000 personal computers and servers to the Russian Federation Election Commission in the second quarter of last year. It also supplied two Compaq Proliant 4500 super-servers to the Central Election Commission . These were used to deliver the results of the 1995 elections to the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. The same system will be used in the presidential elections in June 1996. Soft
ware was supplied by Novell Inc and Oracle Corp. The total value of the project was not given.
