Vostoktelecom, a Russian-Japanese joint venture, is to develop a digital telecommunications system in the Russian Far East. It was set up by Interdaltelecom of Russia with authorised capital of some $10m. Interdaltelecom is putting up 25% of this, and two Japanese telecommunications companies are putting up 35% each. The venture plans to use telecommunications equipment supplied by NEC Corp at a cost of $77m. The first stage of the project will be to connect Vladivostok, Nakhodka, and Khabarovsk with international networks via Japan. The new service will not be connected to Russian public telephone networks and its services will be offered at between $5 and $6 a minute.
