On March 28, 2011 Vyacheslav M. Gaizer, Head of the Republic of Komi, and Vladimir A. Akulich, CEO of N.W.Telecom, signed the final minutes of the Agreement of Cooperation* where all the fulfilled obligations and achievement over the period of the Agreement are recorded.

In the six years from the Agreement signing date (2004 - 2010), N.W.Telecom paid over 2 billion rubles of tax payments to the budget of the Republic of Komi. The Company has invested over 3.3 billion rubles in the development and updating of the region’s telecommunication network.

An important N.W.Telecom project for the region was the completed construction of the Syktyvkar-Kotlas-Vologda fiber optic communication line (FOCL) in its Syktyvkar-Vizinga-Shiroky Priluk section 193 km long. This provided an ample communication channel to the outside for the republic. Nearly 2400 km of fiber optic communication lines are laid in the region, so it can be expected that as early as by the end of 2011 the republic’s intrazonal network digitization will reach nearly 100%.

In the effective period of the Agreement, the republic’s N.W.Telecom multiservice data transmission network was established and has been expanded annually. Already over 107,000 subscribers use the services of broadband Internet access. The residents of all of the republic’s towns and district centers can now use digital TV via an Internet protocol ( IP TV ).

In these years, N.W.Telecom implemented several large-scale social projects in the Republic of Komi. Due to the installation of 757 all-in-one payphones, the residents of the region’s remotest localities got access to communication services. Under the “Education” priority national project, the Company provided broadband Internet access for 329 educational institutions of the republic. Today, N.W.Telecom is successfully implementing a remote education program for disabled children and pupils of low-number schools. The company is also implementing the “Telemedicine” project, which has already set up a data transmission network for 10 medical facilities of the republic. Besides, N.W.Telecom installed telephone sets in the apartments of invalids and veterans of the Great Patriotic War living in the Republic of Komi.

To improve the customer service quality, N.W.Telecom advanced sales and service stations have been opened in all of the towns and district centers of the Republic of Komi. They operate to the most up-to-date standards.

Within the framework of a unified N.W.Telecom Contact Center, the Company established an interregional multifunctional call center in the Republic of Komi. It offers a broad range of information services to its customers in the North-Western Federal District.

Summing up the efficient cooperation, Head of Komi Mr. Gaizer thanked the North-West Telecom’s team for its material contribution to the republic’s economy. “We have many more important things to do. Among them is construction of a fiber optic line to Naryan-Mar. I hope that line, and future projects will be as successful, this time by a new company, OJSC Rostelecom,” Mr. Gaizer added.

In his turn, Mr. Akulich assured the Head of Komi that “the process of N.W.Telecom integration into the united Rostelecom company will have a favorable effect on further development of communications in the region.”