Russia's leading telecom operator OJSC Rostelecom has completed the construction of the first stage of its corporate data transmission network.  This network is designed to connect the company's central office with its major branches throughout 15 regions of the Russian Federation. Within the framework of this project a multi-service network has been created, which is intended to transmit internal information between the main branches of OJSC Rostelecom, which are located in Moscow and 15 regions throughout the entire territory of Russia (Novosibirsk, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Saint Petersburg and a number of others).  A tender was held to launch the project.  The winner of the tender was a Russian company, Optima.  This company has accumulated 12 years of expertise in working on the integrated systems market. Under the tender contract signed with Optima, this company is to deliver systems equipment manufactured by Cisco, perform installation work related to this equipment, conduct testing and enter the entire network into service.  One of the distinguishing features of OJSC Rostelecom's new corporate network is its sophisticated technology, which provides for channel reserves to avoid information loss in the event of breakdowns.  The new network also makes its possible to reroute exceptionally heavy workloads in several different directions. The channels of the new corporate network have a capacity ranging from 2 to 100 Mbits/s, which allows the company to carry out one of the main requirements - the ability to transmit at least 15 Gb of information per day.  The existing telecom lines of Rostelecom are to be used as transport channels.  As noted by Rostelecom analysts, the implementation of this project will enable the company to improve the day-to-day operations of Rostelecom between its offices and to effectively upgrade the services of the nation's largest telecommunications operator.  There are plans in the future to expand this network by gradually connecting smaller divisions, and OJSC Optima has assumed technical and maintenance obligations to support the development of the network.