The restoration work to eliminate the consequences of the fire broke out on the night of 14-15 February inst. at Telephone Exchanges 284 and 971 in the building of the PJSC MGTS Zamoskvoretskiy Telephone Node lasted round the clock from 19 to 21 February 2003. The repair crews of the Zamoskvoretskiy Telephone Node and other nodes' repair teams took part in the restoration.

One Hundred and Sixty-Eight (168) transmission systems were brought back to life to resume communication at the damaged telephone exchanges. Besides, the repairers are replacing the burnt down cables.

By the present moment, the mounting of the equipment of the small-scale Telephone Exchange of 3 000 numbers to replace the irreparable hardware at Telephone Exchange 284 is completed, and adjustment and testing of the newly installed one finalized. Thus, the performance of Telephone Exchange 284 has been restored entirely.

On 20 February 2003, the technical examination conducted by PJSC MGTS specialists following the results of the work done at Telephone Exchange 971 arrived at the conclusion that the subscriber capacity of Six Thousand (6 000) numbers could not be reconstructed after the fire.

The reconstruction work at Telephone Exchange 971 is being done by PJSC MGTS technicians jointly with those of "MOSTELEFONSTROY" (Moscow Telephone Infrastructures Repair Authority). At the first phase, the affected buses and blocks were cleansed of fire soot, then the latter were rinsed, and the electrical circuits tested. On 20 February 2003, Telephone Exchange 971 was put into full operation; however, an hour and a half later, there occurred a thermal overheating of the buses. According to the conclusions made following the technical examination, the plastic details of the equipment changed their chemical properties after the outbreak and extinguishing of the fire with a thin current-conductive film formed over the hardware surfaces. Thus, it was found impossible to have repairs at Exchange 971 continued. A decision was made by the PJSC MGTS General Director Vladimir S. Lagutin to install a new office of 6 000 numbers at Telephone Exchange 971. Presently, vacant equipment at other telephone nodes is temporarily dismantled, brought into the telephone node building in 51 Schepkina Street and fully mounted therein. Its adjustment and lining-up have been started. It is intended to start a step-by-step subscriber interconnection as of 21 February.

The repair work will be continued on a twenty-four hours' basis until the affected subscriber numbers have been interconnected in entirety. Likewise, PJSC MGTS will provide for the mobile public call offices and 100 public payphones to continue to operate in a free-call mode in the emergency area until the damaged communication has been restored completely.

Thus, the restoration of all the 40 000 damaged numbers is to be finalized by the evening of 24 February.