On 19th November 2008 the solemn ceremony of rewarding the 500,000th subscriber of the Avangard service took place at the Call Centre of OJSC North-West Telecom in Arkhangelsk.

Yelena Nikolayevna Tryapitsyna, a resident of the village of Kholmogory of Arkhangelsk Oblast, became the jubilee subscriber. A mini notebook was given to the 500,000th subscriber as a gift. 'It is such a surprise that I have become the jubilee subscriber of the Avangard service and, of course, I am very glad. I work as a teacher and I need high-speed access to the Internet to get prepared for lessons and for the search of interesting data and materials. It is only through the global web that one can be well posted on all the events and not lag behind our urban colleagues in getting info rmation ,' Yelena noted.

'It is so pleasant that the half-a-millionth subscriber of the Avangard service has been found in the Arkhangelsk branch of OJSC North-West Telecom , taking into account the serious plans of our competitor s as to developing the regional programme in the Northwestern Federal District , including Arkhangelsk Oblast,' Deputy General Manager – Sales Manager of OJSC North-West Telecom O. V. Popov noted.

The individual subscriber-oriented Avangard service is in keen demand of the target audience in all regions of the Northwestern Federal District. Presented at the Norwecom exhibition in February 2006 for the first time, the service has been developing faster and faster and in less than a year embraced the entire Northwestern Federal District . In March 2007 the 100,000th subscriber was connected . By the end of 2007 more than 280,000 subscribers of OJSC N.W.Telecom were using the Avangard service, and according to the results of the 1st quarter of 2008 the number of those connected to the service amounted to more than 320,000.

As Deputy General Manager – Sales Manager of OJSC North-West Telecom O. V. Popov noted, "for the recent 6 years the number of subscribing users of the Internet services has been increasing rapidly. However, while in 2002 – 2005 those were mainly dial-up access users, starting from 2006 when we introduced the Avangard service to the mass market a turn of the trend started, and today most subscribers are users of broadband access. Due to the high demand and the proactive marketing policy, we have managed to win and retain the leading position in the market of broadband access services for individuals.'

The Avangard service on the basis of the ADSL technology is provided using the existing telephone line , makes it possible to combine work in the Internet and a telephone call and ensures a constant high-speed access to the Internet . OJSC North-West Telecom is constantly developing and improving the service both by expanding the range of rate plans and increasing the access speeds and by offering extra network capacities and a quality service support. Free services are available to users of the Avangard service : Network Games , My Photos , My Files , My Journal . The company provides info rmation and engineering support of the service on the specialized product website www.avangard-dsl.ru and by the telephone of the support service (operating round-the-clock). To simplify the service connection procedure and to save clients ' time, OJSC N.W. Telecom offers a Turn-key service , using which you may install the Avangard service without leaving home. In two regions of the Northwestern Federal District, subscribers of the Avangard service may also get connected to interactive television Avangard TV, which includes viewing TV programmes in the digital quality, the video-on-demand service, suspended viewing service, etc.

'Through expanding and upgrading the multiservice network of the Company and constructing fibre-optic communication lines, both trunk lines and those directed to district centers, OJSC N.W. Telecom is constantly improving the quality of providing the broadband access service both in St. Petersburg and in the regions of the Northwestern Federal District. A flexible rate policy and the high service level have made it possible to make Avangard service a really mass service . Today anyone who wishes so can choose the optimal rate plan proceeding from his/her financial capabilities and get an unrestricted access to info rmation . We congratulate the 500,000th subscriber and wish her to grasp all the secrets of the Internet ,' Oleg Popov said.

More detailed information on the Avangard service can be found on the www.avangard-dsl.ru web site.