Moscow, Russia (March 13, 2007).GoldenTelecom, Inc. (“Golden Telecom” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: “GLDN”), a leading facilities-based provider of integrated telecommunications and Internet services in major population centers throughout Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (“CIS”), responded today to warnings from Rossvyaznadzor regarding routing of traffic.
Rossvyaznadzor, a Russian governmental body responsible for the control and the supervision of information technology and communications, warned EDN Sovintel LLC (“Sovintel”), a wholly-owned Russian subsidiary of Golden Telecom, that it should remedy certain alleged violations in traffic routing. The allegation follows an inspection by Rossvyaznadzor of an independent operator, OAO Arctel (“Arctel”). Rossvyaznadzor believes that Sovintel inappropriately converted telephone traffic of Arctel into IP-telephone traffic and then incorrectly routed this traffic abroad.
During the inspection of Arctel, representatives of Rossvyaznadzor made thirty-nine test calls, all of which allegedly went through Sovintel’s network. Sovintel then tested and carried out a full analysis of the routing of these calls. Following Sovintel’s review, the Company determined that nineteen calls were not made through its network and that the twenty remaining calls were routed in accordance with existing regulations and Sovintel’s licenses.
Sovintel has notified Rossvyaznadzor of the above findings and that it believes that it has not violated its licenses.
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