Moscow Local Telephone Network and AT&T Corp have announced a four-year project, valued at $200m, to provide digital exchanges and infrastructure for the Moscow city telephone network. The contract between the Moscow Local Telephone Network, Russia’s long distance carrier Rostelecom, AT&T, and the AT&T/Mosocw Local Telephone Network 50-50 joint venture Telmos was signed in Washington during Boris Yeltsin’s visit to the US late last year. Under the contract, AT&T will develop and build a digital network capable of supporting the traffic of 1m subscribers. The plan stipulates the connection of 400,000 new subscribers to the digital exchanges and a considerable increase in the international call completion rate. A series of primary and secondary fibre optic circles will form a backbone network, based on Synchronous Digital Hierarchy technology which provides high flexibility and reliability of the system and enables the companies to offer services-on-demand. Two high-capacity 5ESS-2000 switches will work as transit nodes, supporting 250,000 lines between the new network and the existing one. They will also connect these networks with intercity and international circuits. The 400,000 users will be served by four 5ESS switches. Moscow Network plans to create two new million zones which will enable its subscribers to be gradually switched from the old network to the new one. The system will be monitored by Moscow Centre for Integrated Network Maintenance, using the software of AT&T BaseWorX. A software development and training centre will also be created. During the installation of the fibre optic backbone, the three operators are going to use a temporary system that will enable them to offer services to large businesses. As a result, they will raise additional money at the very beginning of the plan. The system is based on dynamic compression technology, increasing the network’s capacity. The completion of the whole project is divided in four stages. The first is scheduled to start at once. During a pilot stage, dynamic compression technology will be applied. At stage one, some portions of the transit network and the first 100,000 lines will be built. At stage two, the transit network will be expanded, providing another 150,000 lines. The last 150,000 users will be added after the completion of the transit network during the third stage.
