Rostelecom (Russian: ОАО «Ростелеком») is Russia's leading long-distance telephony provider. Domestic long distance service provides about 50% of the company's revenue, and international long distance calls provide about 25%. The company provides traditional fixed-line voice, mobile, data, TV and value-added services to residential, corporate and governmental subscribers. Rostelecom has the largest domestic backbone network and last-mile connections to approximately 43 million households in Russia. The company is present on almost the entire territory of the Russian Federation. In 2011 the company had approximately 500,000 km backbone capacity (the nearest rival MTS has 117,000 km backbone), as well as 28.1 mln out of Russia’s total 41.4 mln copper lastmile lines, which makes it the largest provider of traditional fixed-line voice services and broadband Internet in the country.[1]
| File:Rostelecom-2011-logo.png | |
| Company type | Public (OAO) |
|---|---|
| MCX: RTKM OTCQX: ROSYY | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Headquarters | Moscow, Russia |
Key people | Vadim Semyonov, (Chairman) Sergey Kalugin, (CEO) |
| Products | Fixed Telephony Mobile Telephony Broadband Internet IT Services Networking Solutions Cable television |
| Revenue |  USD 10.5 billion (2012) |
73,707,000,000 Russian ruble (2021)  | |
 USD 1.1 billion (2012) | |
| Total assets | 1,102,888,000,000 Russian ruble (2021) |
Number of employees | 170,000 |
| Subsidiaries | National Cable Networks, Central Telegraph |
| Website | www |
The company's stock is traded on the Moscow Exchange, OTCBB, London Stock Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
History
Prior to 1990, responsibility for the provision of telecommunications services lie at the Ministry of Communications of the USSR. On June 26, 1990 the Ministry of Communications of the USSR established a state-owned joint-stock company Sovtelekom, which was given the rights to operate the telecommunications network of the USSR.
On December 30, 1992 by order of the State Property Committee of Russia a state-owned enterprise Rostelecom, which consisted of 20 state long-distance and international calls, as well as communication equipment Intertelekom was organized.
Rostelecom was founded on September 23, 1993, when the state registration approved the company. In 1995-1996 the construction of the Central Complex, the unified international and long distance digital communication networks in the country's single telecommunications environment. Rostelecom built the world's longest digital radio link "Moscow - Khabarovsk". From 1998 to 2000, the Group entered into the program to ensure a modern digital communication remote and inaccessible regions of Russia. Were commissioned ground station satellite networks of OJSC "Rostelecom" using frequency satellite resources of the new generation LMI-1 of the International Organization of Space Communications "Intersputnik".
On October 18, 2006 "Rostelecom" received a certificate of quality of IP-MPLS network and became the ISP backbone. In December 2006, Rostelecom and the telecommunications company KDDI in Japan under the "Transit Europe - Asia" signed an agreement to build a line of Nakhodka - Naoetsu with total bandwidth of 640 Gbit/s instead of the previous 560 Mbit/s.[2]
On March 2012 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a merger between Svyazinvest and Rostelecom within a year. The order, published at pravo.gov.ru state legal website, also stipulated that the Russian government and the country's national development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) will maintain a holding of over 50 percent to keep control of the new company, which will work under the Rostelecom brand name.[3] In late September 2013 Rostelecom completed the final stage of its reorganization, under which state-run telecom holding Svyazinvest and 20 other firms were integrated into Rostelecom. The government’s combined common stake in the merged company amounted to 51.12% after the reorganization.[4]
On September 2013 it was announced that the company had deployed one of the world’s largest operator content delivery networks. The network sees the deployment of content servers in 30 major Russian cities by Swedish infrastructure vendor Ericsson, which said that the platform will enable Rostelecom to create sustainable businesses in partnership with over the top (OTT) service providers.[5]
On october 2013 the company completed development and began commercial operations of its single payment system. It simplifies the procedure for payment for all telecommunications services of the company on the territory of Russia and also introduce new services such as "auto-top-up" and "e-commerce" or "single click".[6] On December 2013 the company launched its new Automatic Payment service on its customer service portal. The service enables customers to set automatic payments for fixed telephony, broadband internet, IPTV and mobile services from the operator, with the amounts deducted from a bank card. The service is free for subscribers across the country."Rostelecom launches automatic payment". Telecom Papaer. Retrieved 21 December 2013.</ref>
Corporate governance
The company’s board of directors consists of eleven members. Three of them represent governmental entities (Rosimuschestvo, Svyazinvest, VEB) and eight are independent.
Operations
Rostelecom includes the regional incumbent telecommunications operators (CentreTelecom, SibirTelecom, Dalsvyaz, Uralsvyazinform, VolgaTelecom, North-West Telecom and Southern Telecommunications Company) and Dagsvyazinform. Along with its traditional telephony services, Rostelecom provides high-tech telecommunications services, including intelligent network services (INS), video conferencing, broadband Internet access and deployment of virtual private networks (VPN) among others.
Rostelecom has the largest domestic backbone network (approximately 600 thousand km) and last mile connections to approximately 35 million households in Russia. The Company holds licences to provide a wide range of telecommunications services (telephony, data, TV and value-added solutions) to residential, corporate and governmental subscribers and third party operators across all regions of the Russian Federation.[7]
Rostelecom is set to offer triple-play services, combining phone, TV and Internet, in the second half of 2014.[8]
Land network
The company owns and operates the country’s most extensive nationwide fiber-optic backbone network, about 160,000km in lengths. By cable the network is connected to countries in Europe and East Asia.
Fiber-optic cable lines crosses Russian Federation on directions «Moscow — Novorossiysk», «Moscow — Khabarovsk» and «Moscow — Saint Petersburg».
IP transit has been allocated to a separate company, RTComm, using Rostelecom's STM-16 FOCL resources, but Rostelecom is building its own STM-64 (9,9533 Gbit/s) network, which as of August 2006, covered Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, Volgograd, Stavropol, and planned to cover the whole of Russia by the end of 2006.
In 2010 Rostelecom has commissioned a new fiber-optic line St. Petersburg — Vologda — Archangelsk stretching over 1 thousand km at 24 Gbit/s.[9] At the end of 2013 Rostelecom completed to deploy the Tynda - Yakutsk fiber line which according to the company provides network redundancy, optimizing traffic and increase trunk in areas Tynda - Skovorodino - Khabarovsk.[10]
Rostelecom had 29.2 million local fixed-line voice subscribers, 12.4 million mobile voice subscribers, 7.4 million fixed-line broadband subscribers and 5.5 million pay-TV subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2010.
Television
With its 6 millionn subscribers in 2012, Rostelecom is the second-largest pay-TV player in Russia after National Satellite Company (satellite TV operator, Tricolor-TV brand). Rostelecom has 22% market share by subscribers versus 29% with NSC. As of 2012, 85% of Rostelecom’s pay-TV subscribers were users of cable TV and the remaining 15% used IPTV. The company is largely present in the cable segment through its 100% subsidiary National Telecommunications (NTK), which was acquired in 2011. Rostelecom provides IPTV services in regions on the base of IP infrastructure of former regional telecoms. In 2011 the company launched the Zabava.ru multimedia portal.[11]
On October 2013 Rostelecom has announced the results of its latest tender for set-top boxes. The requirement was for two types of boxes: ‘Interactive TV Standard’ and ‘Interactive TV Standard Plus’. SmartLabs will provide 47 thousand Standard Plus STBs, with the remaining 609 thousand Standard boxes being provided by SmartLabs (304,500), Promzakaz (182,700) and Promsvyaz (121,800).[12]
On March 2013 it was announced that total Pay TV subscriber base increased 12% year-on-year to 6.6 million subscribers. Out of the total subscriber base, the number of interactive TV subscribers more than doubled to 1.4 million, with the penetration of optical networks reaching 34%. Rostelecom’s share of the Interactive TV market was 49% at this period.[13] The company is working with content providers to offer exclusive high-quality content to attract users. In 2013 it already agreed to provide programming from Stockholm-based Modern Times Group AB (MTGB)’s Viasat and local Gazprom-Media.
Cellular network
Rostelecom and its subsidiaries NSS, Baikalvestkom, Yeniseikom, SkyLink, Volgograd GSM and Akos provide mobile services on the territory of 59 regions of Russia, serving more than 13.5 million subscribers. During the 2010s, Rostelecom and its subsidiaries built mobile networks of the third generation in 27 regions of Russia. Total planned to install more than 8 thousand base stations. Suppliers of equipment and solutions for the 3G+ network are Ericsson and Huawei.[14] On April 2013 the company announced the launch of 3G+ networks in the Sverdlovsk, Kurgan and Chelyabinsk regions, in the south of the Tyumen region and in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area. This launch followed the introduction of 3G+ services in Perm Krai. Rostelecom’s 3G+ network was installed using HSPA+ technology, providing data transfer speeds of up to 21MB/s, with the possibility of upgrading the network to reach speeds of up to 42MB/s if demand requires. The 3G+ network is LTE-ready, so that only minor modifications will be required before the Company can roll out its 4G (LTE) network in the future.[15] On June 2013 Rostelecom launched its first part of its LTE network in Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Besides, the company launched LTE networks in 8 other regions besides Karsnodar Krai by the end of 2013, including Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Republic of Khakassia, Republic of North Ossetia–Alania, Sakhalin Oblast, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.[16]
On December 2013, Rostelecom board approved a plan to merge its mobile business into Tele2 Russia, former division of Nordic telecoms group Tele2 which sold it in April 2013 to VTB Bank due to the lack of 3G and 4G data licences, limiting its future growth prospects. Rostelecom would get a 45% voting stake in the new company, T2 RTK Holding, in exchange for contributing its standalone mobile subsidiaries and assets, including SkyLink. Tele2 Russia, owned by state-controlled bank VTB and Russian businessmen Yuri Kovalchuk and Alexei Mordashov, will have 55%. Rostelecom and Tele2 Russia together have around 38 million mobile subscribers, or a combined market share of 16%.[17] During the second stage, Rostelecom will spin off its integrated mobile businesses into its new wholly owned subsidiary, RT-Mobile, which will be expected to have Rostelecom's mobile licences, including the LTE licences, re-issued to it.[18] Analysts said the deal makes sense as "Rostelecom has been less efficient in rolling out mobile networks. By relying on the Tele2 team in mobile expansion Rostelecom removes risks, while remaining open to an upside".[19]
Satellite network
Using the services of the Russian Orbital Group, Rostelecom has built its satellite system for its Eastern region, comprising 11 land stations in Siberia and the Russian Far East. Satellite service for the Western region is being built at this time.
Retail
In early 2014 the company owned about 2,500 outlets across Russia. As part of the company strategy, sales services will gradually move from retail stores in the Internet and remote channels. In 2012 the company stetted up a new daughter company, Rostelecom - Retail Systems (Russian: Ростелеком - Розничные системы).[20]
Cloud services
On May 2012 the company has completed phase one of “Project 07”, the national cloud computing platform to be fully put together by 2015 as part of the federal Information Society program. The platform, launched in beta version in March of that year under the o7.com domain name, offers cloud-based software, infrastructure and development platform services (SaaS, IaaS and PaaS, respectively).
Karta Svyazi
Karta Svyazi is a user-friendly prepaid long-distance telephone card service designed to provide telephony and access to the internet for people on the go.
References
- ^ Rostelecom: From an outsider to a true Big 4 name, Gazprombank
- ^ Россия-Япония: скорость связи вырастет в 1000 раз // CNews.ru, 13.12.2006
- ^ "Medvedev Orders Svyazinvest, Rostelecom Merger", Ria Novosti
- ^ "Russian ministry seeking organizers for Rostelecom privatization". Prime business news agency. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ^ Russia’s Rostelecom deploys “groundbreaking” CDN
- ^ Rostelecom implements unified payment system
- ^ Rostelecom: From an outsider to a true Big 4 name, Gazprombank
- ^ "Rostelecom CEO Says Tele2 Russia Deal Will Create Value". Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ^ Rostelecom had a new fiber optic line in Arkhangelsk
- ^ ""Ростелеком" достроит магистральный канал Тында-Якутск до конца года". comnews.ru. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
- ^ Rostelecom: From an outsider to a true Big 4 name, Gazprombank
- ^ Rostelecom orders 656,000 IPTV set-top boxes
- ^ Rostelecom doubles IPTV subscribers in 2012 to 1.4 million
- ^ "Дочка "Ростелекома" начала тестирование сети 3G+ в Красноярске". comnews.ru. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
- ^ "Rostelecom launches 3G+ network in five regions of the Urals Federal District". Rostelecom official website. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ^ "Rostelecom OJSC: Rostelecom launches the first part of it's LTE network in Sochi". Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ^ "Rostelecom approves mobile merger with former Tele2 unit". Reuters.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|publishdate=ignored (help) - ^ "Rostelecom Board OKs Merging Mobile Assets with Tele2 Russia". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ^ "Rostelecom CEO Says Tele2 Russia Deal Will Create Value". Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ^ ""Ростелеком" уводит продавцов в Интернет". comnews.ru. Retrieved 3 December 2013.