In April Combellga opened a international telephone exchange at the Lomonosov Moscow State University, donating the university free access to some of the 2,000 new international channels. The exchange will serve businesses in that area of Moscow as well as improving incoming telephone access to the University. Alexander Kozhanov, general director of Combellga, says the donation is not purely charitable since the company anticipates profits from incoming traffic generated by interest in the big academic databases located at the university. Victor Sadovnichiy, rector of the University said, As one of the leading Russian scientific centres we are looking to the future; and this is impossible without modern telecommunications. We have much interesting information to offer Russian as well as Western scientific communities and the business world. He says the new capacity will enable the university to organise high speed data exchange between computers within the university as well as reliable telephone connections with the West. In the near future he says the university plans to introduce X.25 and viewdata services. Combellga says the telephone exchange installed in the university is an Alcatel 1000 S12, also known as System 12. The company says an important advantage of placing the new switch at the University is that being based in the Vorobiovy Hills, it is at one of the highest points in Moscow. To avoid the local telephone system, Combellga connects its customers direct to its digital overlay network. Rather than using expensive surface connections, Combellga will now be able to link its customers to the university by microwave which will considerably reduce its expenses. The system is linked with the outside world via two radio relay and two fibre optic links. It is connected by microwave to the international switch operated by Rostelecom and a telephone exchange in Krasnogorsk in the Moscow region, which enables the joint venture to provide access to the local Moscow telephone network. Combellga has leased international channels from Rostelcom. The two fibre optic links connect the University system with Combellga’s international exchange in the Foreign Ministry and the its satellite teleport, which has access to Intelsat and Eutelsat. Kozhanov says the 2,000 channel capacity could be increased to 10,000 if and when the need arises. Combellga is a joint venture between Comincom, Belgacom SA, Alcatel Bell Telephone, and the Moscow Local Telephone Network.
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