Baltic Communications Ltd has, the St Petersburg joint venture satellite communications company in which Cable & Wireless Plc has invested $5.5m for a 40% stake, yesterday inaugrated service with a call from the mayor of the Russian city, Anatoly Sobchak, to the mayor of Manchester via Mercury Communications Ltd: other partners in the venture are the San Francisco/Moscow Teleport Inc and three state telecommunications companies in St Petersburg; the venture has installed a digital overlay network linked to a earth station in St Petersburg owned by Eutelsat; the venture will provide worldwide connections for businesspeople and tourists via the link with Mercury.
