Moscow, Russia – November 13, 2012– Rostelecom OJSC (the “Group”) (MICEX - RTS: RTKM, RTKMP; OTCQX: ROSYY), Russia’s national telecommunications operator, today announces that its broadband subscriber base now exceeds 9 million users as at the beginning of November 2012. Rostelecom remains the leader of the Russian broadband market with a 40% market share[1], which is almost 4 times more than its nearest competitor.

Growth in Rostelecom’s broadband subscriber base is being driven by an increase in the number of broadband subscribers using high-throughput broadband services. These services utilise FTTH and FTTP technology and the number of broadband subscribers using this technology is doubling on an annual basis.

Rostelecom intends to expand its broadband consumer offering by upgrading its main package with new features so that customers are offered the most competitive bundles both in terms of price and content. The Company plans to carry out a number of promotional activities, which includes offering tariff plans on trial periods to test Rostelecom’s higher-speed services, and includes offering promotional rates when a user subscribes to a set of services or additional options. The Group also plans to launch additional packages that are tailored to users’ preferences.  A variety of new services will be added to Rostelecom’s content offerings, including new TV channels, video and music content, built-in communications and e-commerce programmes.

Furthermore, a new loyalty programme, which will be launched in 2013, will enable subscribers to earn bonus points which they can use to pay for Rostelecom’s services or to subscribe to new services and offers.

Pavel Zaytsev, Senior Vice President of Rostelecom, commented: “A great deal of thought and investment has gone behind the development of this strategic business segment. We are currently modernising our ‘last mile’ infrastructure, moving to fibre-optic access technologies to connect our customers. This enables us to offer subscribers the most advanced packages around, which includes Interactive TV and other content services.” 

[1]Source: ACM-Consulting