Late in 2007 a book by Maxim Bukin* Connecting Schools to the Internet Day After Day. Education High-priority National Project. Chronicle of Events as Seen by a Journalist was published with the support of the Synterra company. The book included , among other things, materials and illustrations prepared by OJSC N.W. Telecom , as well as lists of the Company 's employees who participated in implementing this unique project .

The book has collected information on the events of 10 months - starting from September 2006 when the State Contract No. 369 was made till July 2007 when over 95% educational institution s were connected . The author has not just reflected the chronology of the events, he has presented the factual base: the original minutes of meetings of working groups, contents of office files, plans of work organization, a selection of publications in federal and regional mass media on the events that took place. The edition has reflected the opinions and views of leaders of the key ministries, departments and profit-making organizations that participated in the actual implementation of the project. The interviewees included Minister of Information Technologies and Communication L. D. Reiman, General Manager of OJSC Svyazinvest A. N. Kiselyov and many other people.

Immediate participant s of the Education high-priority national project are featured in the edition.    They were the specialists from all regions of Russia who "delivered equipment, installed VSAT satellite stations, arranged wired ADSL terminals, spliced trunk channels and provided the "tie-in" with satellites and in general did their job very well under snow, frost and wind, rain and heat, on plains, in cities, in the impassable taiga and tangled streets of megapolises..." The list of the project participant s includes more than 6,000 names, among them over 650 managers and specialists of various divisions of OJSC N.W.Telecom .

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OJSC North-West Telecom has acted as a contractor of OJSC RTComm.RU (a member of the Synterra grop of companies) in implementing the "Education" project in the Northwestern Federal District. According to an agreement entered into with OJSC RTComm.RU (RTCOMM), the functions of OJSC N.W.Telecom include organizing virtual communication channels at a speed not lower than 128 Kbit/s from educational institution s to regional access centers of   RTCOMM, round-the-clock provision for use and maintenance of such channels, installation and adjustment of terminal equipment at schools.  

OJSC North-West Telecom fulfilled its obligations under the Education project ahead of schedule – by 1st September 2007. 2842 educational institution s of the Northwestern Federal District of the RF were connected to the Internet global network with the participation of OJSC N.W. Telecom by the new academic year. Including: 280 educational institution s in Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Nenets Autonomous District, 192 in the Republic of Karelia, 315 in the Republic of Komi, 524 in Vologda Oblast , 197 in Kaliningrad Oblast, 414 in Leningrad Oblast, 229 in Murmansk Oblast , 253 in Novgorod Oblast, 328 in Pskov Oblast and 110 schools in St. Petersburg.

Access to the Internet for educational institutions located both in towns and in villages has been mainly provided via the existing cable communication lines. Where that was impossible – in remote and hard-to-reach settlements – all available means and technologies were used: radio access, satellite channels, etc. Connection to the Internet was mainly arranged using the ADSL technology, which makes it possible to organize a high-speed data link channel on a usual telephone line.

* Briefly about the author: Maxim Sergeyevich Bukin, scientific editor of the PC Week/RE magazine , has been in journalism since 1997, author of 18 books, published over 700 articles in various magazine s, newspapers and Internet projects.