MOSCOW, Russia; The second edition of the Russia and CIS Broadband and Wireless Telecoms Summit took place at the Marriott Grand Hotel in Moscow on 31st October-1st November 2005 and attracted some of the biggest national and International telecoms operators and broadband and wireless service providers. The increasing liberalisation of Russia’s telecoms and broadband industry was a key factor in attracting major international sponsors that included Motorola, Accenture, News Skies Satellite, Rostelecom, Viasat, Iskratel, Hughes Networks Systems, Texas Instruments, Intersputnik, Infinet Wireless, Eutelsat, Alcatel, Intelsat, Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) and Codan. The conference now looks set to establish itself as the most important date in the calendar for Russia’s broadband industry.

The summit was hosted by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Russia and senior representatives of SvyazInvest and Rostelecom and was attended by more than 250 International and regional delegates and telecoms industry press as well as a number of high-ranking delegations from International telecoms organisations and financial institutions including the European Satellite Operators association, International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Global VSAT Forum, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Wimax Forum and the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Associations, National Assembly of Satellite Communications of Russia.

This year Russia & CIS Broadband & Wireless 2005 broadened its geographical scope to host senior delegations and speakers from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyz Republic and Turkey. The summit also featured a special roundtable dedicated to promoting European-Russian dialogue on Satellite Services and the regulatory environment in Russia and hosted a senior delegation from the European Commission as well as senior representatives from the Federal Agency of Communications of Russia and the National Anti-Monopoly Service of Russia.

The event visibly demonstrated the strength of interest in Russia’s telecommunications and IT sector as a whole and more specifically the potential development of DSL, cable, wireless and satellite broadband services in Russia and the CIS. With Russia’s economy entering a period of stability thanks to long-term growth on the back of high-oil prices, demand for quicker and more efficient Internet speeds offered by broadband has reached unprecedented levels amongst Russia’s burgeoning middle class and SME business sector, driving the further development and upgrading of regional xDSL and VSAT infrastructure. This in turn is stimulating direct investment into the development of specific Russian and regional content for converged broadband internet, TV, radio broadcasting and VoIP services.

According to the latest official figures the number of broadband users in Russia with a speed of at least 200 Kbps is approximately 3,500,000 and although most users are in the business sector, the increase in consumer spending power in Russia’s metropolitan areas is driving residential sector demand. President Putin has also demonstrated his commitment to telecoms liberalisation with on-going license deregulation in the fixed line, satellite and mobile sectors as well as announcing two State subsidized IT programmes, ‘A computer in every house’ and ‘Electronic Russia 2002-2010’, helping to accelerate residential and corporate computerisation and the subsequent development of broadband in Russia.

For further information contact: David Vivani at BEM

Phone: +44 (0)20 7596 5200
Fax: +44 (0)20 7596 5204
E-mail: [email protected]