In mid-December OJSC North-West Telecom commissioned a fibre-optic communication line in the Vozhega-Verkhovazhye section in Vologda Oblast. Thus, the construction of the transport ring uniting all districts of the region in fibre-optic communication lines has been completed.  This is the first region serviced by OJSC N.W. Telecom where the fibre-optic communication network has united all district centers and digitization in intraareal transmission lines is 100%.

A zone communication network of its own on the basis of fibre-optic communication lines and the digitization of the intraareal network ensure a significant increase of the channels throughput and make it possible for OJSC N.W. Telecom to provide the most state-of-the-art communication services at a new quality level, including the broadband Internet access and other additional services, to residents of the entire region, including the most remote areas.  Besides, the availability of own intraareal fibre-optic communication network makes it possible for the Company to completely abandon the lease of intraareal channels from other telecommunication operators in the region.

According to Vladimir Tykin, Technical Manager of the Vologda Branch of OJSC N.W.Telecom, "it is a great achievement that OJSC N.W. Telecom has a fibre-optic communication line to each district centre in Vologda Oblast. This allows us to continue the work of replacing the rural analog telephone exchanges by digital exchanges and to provide the most up-to-date telecommunication services to the population of the region. The work of laying the fibre-optic communication lines in the region started in 2004, and for the 4 years we have already laid almost 2,500 km of zone fibre-optic communication lines."

As Oleg Semanov, Technical Manager of OJSC N.W.Telecom, has noted, "traditionally we have placed emphasis on creating our own trunk fibre-optic network built using wavelength-division multiplexing equipment – DWDM. Today such a network has connected St. Petersburg with 7 regional (republican) centres of the Northwestern Federal District. The total length of OJSC N.W. Telecom's fibre-optic communication network is more than 12,000 km. The Company's plans provide for further digitization of both the telephone exchange capacity and the intraareal transport network in all regions of the Northwestern Federal District.  Next year intraareal fibre-optic communication lines will embrace 100% of the district centers of Leningrad, Pskov and Novgorod Oblasts.