On 18th November 2010 Victor Ivanovich Plyachenko, Regional Director – Director of the St. Petersburg united branch of OJSC North-West Telecom, and Andrey Polenets, CEO of Iskratel, signed an Agreement of Cooperation between OJSC North-West Telecom and Iskratel (Kranj, the Republic of Slovenia) ( hereinafter referred to as “ the Parties,  OJSC N.W.Telecom and Iskratel”).

The joint initiatives expressed in the Agreement will be implemented in Leningrad Oblast.

The Agreement signing ceremony took place in the House of the Government of Leningrad Oblast in the course of an official meeting of Valery Serdyukov, the Governor of Leningrad Oblast, with President of Slovenia Danilo Türk in the framework of the state visit of the President of the Republic of Slovenia to the Russian Federation. The delegation of Slovenia included ministers supervising finance, economics, higher education and public health.

In their Agreement, OJSC N.W.Telecom and Iskratel defined the basic principles of mutually beneficial cooperation:

- Interaction in the field of information society development;

- Implementing joint research, analytical and information projects in the field of the popularization of information and telecommunication technologies and promotion of computer and Internet literacy;

- Rendering mutual assistance in implementing convergent and comprehensive communication solutions to meet the needs of the today’s information society;

- Interaction in develop ing and implementing telecommunication solutions for rural and suburban areas;

- Assistance in promoting projects in the field of develop ing data transmission network s / IP network s on the basis of the principle of ensuring the evolutionary upgrading of the existing telecommunication networks;

- Ensuring the exchange of the available information and forming Russian and international technological standards and development trends in the field of telecommunications.

Victor Ivanovich Plyachenko, Regional Director – Director of the St. Petersburg united branch of OJSC N.W.Telecom, noted in his greeting address: “It is very symbolic that in the framework of the Russian-Slovenian business forum the biggest fixed-line telephony operator and the biggest supplier of up-to-date telecommunication solutions have signed an Agreement of Cooperation, which will undoubtedly facilitate the development of the telecommunication services in Leningrad Oblast, improve the computer literacy level and solve the problem of digital inequality in the region . This Agreement is fixing the long-standing and well-established partnership relationship between OJSC N.W.Telecom and Iskratel.”

For the period from 2008 till 2010, in the framework of implementing investment projects, OJSC North-West Telecom acquired Iskratel’s equipment worth of 140.3 million roubles for installation in Leningrad Oblast. The investment program for the year 2011 implies implementation of investment projects to replace the telephone exchanges on the rural and urban telephone networks.

By the moment, 37 telephone exchanges and 84 extension hubs with the total installed capacity of 107,248 number s have been installed on the network of Leningrad Oblast.