International telephone services company Combellga is to expand into data communications. Combellga is a joint venture between Alcatel Bell, Belgacom, Cinicom, Moscow City Telephone network and a variety of other local partners. The decision was made at the company’s executive board in early April and according to Alexander Kozhanov, the new network will go into operation this month and will provide X25, viewdata and electronic mail services and will provide gateways to international packet switched networks. Combellga’s main Moscow rivals, Comstar and Sovintel, are also making similar moves in order to offer corporate customers a complete voice and data service. Comstar is soon to launch a service in co-operation with International Telecommunications Services because of the way licences have historically been granted: western service providers have tended to provide only one of voice or data service out of Moscow, not both. The city’s main international data communications providers are Sprint Networks and Sovam Teleport.
