Rostelecom, Russia’s national long-distance telecommunications operator, launched a new intelligent platform to upgrade its value-added services while raising quality levels.

The intelligent platform, a hardware and software complex connected to the PSTN, is the backbone of Rostelecom’s high capacity intelligent network. By leveraging its new intelligent platform of greater processing performance (200 calls per second or 750,000 calls per hour, correspondingly) the Company can offer a growing range of value-added services in every region of Russia.

The launched platform is developed on the back of Tellin equipment from Huawei Technologies. It fully complies with international standards and requirements of ITU-T, ETSI and ANSI to ensure compatibility with the equipment from other manufactures as well as further development of the Company’s intelligent network infrastructure.

Rostelecom was one of those companies, which were the pioneers in providing intelligent network services (INS) in Russia. As of today, Rostelecom’s INS offering includes such services as Televoting, Freephone and the Karta Svyazy prepaid card. In addition, there is a growing demand for the Company’s Premium Rate services that cater to a number of customer needs: interactive telecom services, information services (weather forecast, exchange rates, ordering of taxi or foods), Help and Advice lines etc.

The Russian INS market shows significant growth potential – over the past two years, each year Rostelecom attained a threefold increase in revenue from intelligent and multimedia network services. The Company plans to enhance its ongoing promotions and expand the range of INS, expecting continued strong take-up from customers.

One of the competitive advantages Rostelecom benefits from is that the Company provides its intelligent network services at the federal level, with fixed-line and mobile operators having access to them.

Dmitry Yerokhin, Rostelecom’s General Director, commented: "Today, we see a surge in customer demand for both traditional and new services, so the growing market for INS is a particular focus of our efforts. With its extensive telecoms infrastructure and a new high capacity intelligent network platform, the Company can provide value-added services of raised quality across the entire Russian Federation."