Nowadays the shares of Russian regional telecommunications operators are becoming increasingly more attractive in conjunction with the nationwide merger process taking place in the telecom sector.  Interest in shares of Urals region operators is a case in point.  Under a proposal by equity analysts from Renaissance Capital, a teleconference for Russian and western investors was held on February 5, 2002 with the general director of the core company OJSC Uralsvyazinform, Vladimir Rybakin.  The purpose of the teleconference was to make the investment community aware of the positive repercussions which have resulted from the regional telecom merger and the tariff reform in the long-term outlook.

During the meeting, which was broadcast on live video, Vladimir Rybakin delivered a short overview of the company's 2001 performance, talked about the main stages of the Urals merger and said the company's key objective was to raise the investment appeal of the mega-regional OJSC Uralsvyazinform.  He also addressed investors' questions on the perspectives of universally phasing in per-minute billing on local traffic, as well as achieving break-even in expenses, and plans about developing cellular communications, data transmission, including Internet.