On 28th October 2008, on the eve of its 6th anniversary, OJSC N.W. Telecom arranged a press tour for representatives of mass media of all regions of the Northwestern Federal District.

The goal of the press tour was to demonstrate the latest equipment, on the basis of which OJSC N.W. Telecom provides the services of data transmission and broadband Internet access and the services of digital interactive television IP TV, and SIP telephony . Journalists visited several divisions of the Company in St. Petersburg, went on a tour to the A. S. Popov Central Museum of Communications and took part in a briefing of OJSC N.W. Telecom's managers.

First, the participant The Softswitch equipment is a modern analogue of a digital telephone exchange; however, unlike the telephone exchange, it can provide a wider range of digital -quality services to clients . In 2008 OJSC N.W. Telecom started providing services on the basis of the new Softswitch in St. Petersburg. Among other things, a pilot project of providing This is the first step towards a full-fledged new generation set of Triple Play service s where the telephone operates on the basis of up-to-date telecommunication equipment using the same IP technologies as the Internet and IP TV.

Besides, representatives of mass media have visited the equipment room of the Data Transmission Section of the St. Petersburg branch of OJSC N.W.Telecom . Here one of the biggest multiservice network centres of the Company in the Northwestern region – the " digital heart of ADSL" is situated. Using this equipment, OJSC N.W. Telecom provides mass services of broadband access to the Internet to individuals and corporate clients using the ADSL   technology under the Avangard and Aliance PRO trademarks. The number of xDSL ports installed in St. Petersburg exceeds 300,000, about 250,000 of them having been put into operation .

A briefing with OJSC N.W. Telecom's top management, OJSC N.W. Telecom: New Services on the Basis of New Technologies, has become the climax of the press tour.   The journalists met the General Manager of OJSC NWT Vladimir Alexandrovich Akulich, the Deputy General Manager – Commercial Manager of OJSC N.W.Telecom, Oleg Viktorovich Popov, and the Deputy General Manager in Charge of Corporate Relations Ella Ivanovna Tomilina.

V. A. Akulich noted that "in the recent years OJSC N.W. Telecom has been putting emphasis on developing the most rapidly growing segment in the industry, the data transmission market. This has made it possible both to diversify the portfolio of services and to improve operations efficiency, as these services and their accompanying services are more profitable than the traditional telephony . Thus, from the moment of the merger of regional operators into the united company, North-West Telecom, the income from the "new" services have grown from 270,000,000 roubles to 2.9 billion roubles (according to the results of 2007), i.e. more than The percentage of these services in Company 's proceeds grew from 2.6% to 12.4% In the medium-term, we are planning to increase this index to 26%."

Answering journalists' questions, V. A.   Akulich "One of the most important tasks of OJSC N.W.Telecom is to ensure a uniform development of telecommunications in each region of the Northwestern Federal District, therefore we try to make up our investment plans in such a way that up-to-date communication services are equally available both in big cities and in remote settlements."  

The General Manager of OJSC N.W.Telecom also emphasized the social role of the Company which has been successfully implementing most important socially significant and state projects in the Northwestern Federal District on the annual basis.