3 June 2008, Saint-Petersburg. COMSTAR – United TeleSystems (COMSTAR-UTS OJSC, LSE: CMST), the leading operator of integrated telecommunications services in Russia and the CIS, has conducted a videoconferencing session for Kaspersky’s Laboratory at the high-profile White Nights CIO Congress in Saint-Petersburg and also provided sponsorship and technical support to the event.  

Held during 1 June through 3 June 2008, the White Nights Congress is the key forum to exchange experience and identify the trends in IT market growth in northwest Russia. The principal organizer of the Congress was the Saint-Petersburg CIO Club, with COMSTAR-UTS being its Platinum Partner. The Russian CIO Union was actively involved in conducting the Congress. Top professionals and the elite of Russia’s and other CIS countries’ IT business became the delegates to that event.

COMSTAR-UTS OJSC’s Saint-Petersburg Branch took an active part in organizing the White Nights. As part of the Congress, it arranged communication over teleconference bridge between Saint-Petersburg and Veliky Novgorod, in the course of which the conference participants were able to ask Evgeny Kaspersky, the president of one of Russia’s major IT companies, Kaspersky’s Laboratory, questions online. Also, the operator installed a Hot Spot giving free Wi-Fi broadband Internet access. Besides, the representatives of COMSTAR-UTS OJSC’s Saint-Petersburg Branch could demonstrate their creativity by staging a theme theatricals ‘How the Tsar Chose the Operator’ at the gala dinner devoted to the intellectual elite of Russia’s IT market.

“I am happy about Club’s partner, COMSTAR-UTS, participating so actively and ingeniously in the event so significant for the Russian IT market. Today, the competitive advantages of business depend largely on clever employment of entire suite of technologies and equipment. As part of the Congress, COMSTAR-UTS demonstrated its high efficiency in this respect, and I am delighted to say thank you to its employees,” said Maxim Belousov, President of the Saint-Petersburg CIO Club.