April 8, 2009, Moscow: COMSTAR – United TeleSystems (COMSTAR-UTS, LSE: CMST), the leading supplier of integrated telecommunication solutions in Russia and the CIS, has launched the program to develop its regional and international communication network. As the result the capacity of Central Region node has increased twofold, up to 150 Mbps. Works to enhance telecom network in other regions of Russia are to be completed by the end of Q3 2009.

Increased bandwidth will lower the cost of service provisioning and enable more attractive price offers for the most demanded services.

Under this program, COMSTAR-UTS is also taking a number of measures to enhance user experience. In February, the regional and international communication network of COMSTAR-UTS incorporated the zonal node of Saint-Petersburg branch. Now COMSTAR-UTS provides an integrated, packaged offer for all telecom services, including local, zonal and regional/international calls, for the users of its own telephone networks in 9 regions of Russia. Such integrated approach enables operational control of service quality at all levels of network hierarchy and prompt problem detection and resolution.

Aleksey Goncharuk, Senior Vice President of COMSTAR-UTS, says: “Our subscriber base in Moscow is growing fast. Each day COMSTAR-UTS connects an average of about 500 users who have preliminary selected the company as a major operator of long-haul communication. Of course, in such conditions we have to pay special attention to the quality of services, thus, we have upgraded the network. This task was facilitated as network configuration allows modification without substantial investments. And our existing local and zonal networks give COMSTAR-UTS a unique opportunity to offer our subscribers a complete range of services, from local to regional communications, with attractive prices.”

In February 2008, COMSTAR-UTS completed the long-haul network based on new generation solution (NGN) allowing voice and new multimedia services. In August 2008, COMSTAR-UTS got operator-selection codes to provide user access to regional and international telephone services (23 for regional and 28 for international calls), and in autumn we launched long-haul services.