On July 26, 2005 the Petersburg Telephone Network subsidiary of OJSC North-West Telecom will start connecting the residents of the suburban settlement of Shushary to new digital subscriber-access equipment. Its start-up will enable providing telephone communication services to subscribers at a new level of technology, which is ensured by the Exchange’s principal equipment, i.e. digital switches and fiber-optic communication lines.

The LS–1540 digital subscriber-access equipment for a capacity of 3,000 numbers will enable not only to switch over the subscribers of old analog exchanges to new equipment and satisfy the demands of all those willing to get up-to-date communication, but also to install telephones in new-built residential houses.  

The new telephone exchange will be started up as part of implementation of NWT’s investment program for 2005. Its planned scope for St. Petersburg is about RUR 2.0 billion.

The Shushary residents have not been able to get a full set of city telephone network services for more than 20 years. Over this period, the Petersburg Telephone Network has made several attempts to solve the problem, but the high financial costs prohibited implementation of the project. Full scale installation of telephones in the town was promoted by a large scope of work to be done in line facilities’ retrofitting and construction. Communication cables have been connected to 26 blocks of flats.

The advanced communication facilities will enable the customers to get, apart from the traditional services, also additional electronic exchange services (alarm-clock, readdressing, conferences, etc.) and high-rate Internet in their apartments and offices.  

Currently, the PTN branch of North-West Telecom is doing its best to satisfy the applications of its future subscribers for telephone installation. Among these are 54 applications from persons of privileged groups, which will be satisfied in the first place. All the work related to re-switching of existing telephones and installation of new telephones in Shushary will be finalized in September 2005.

Telephone installation in Shushary settlement is part of the implementation of the program of OJSC North-West Telecom to provide telecommunication services to St. Petersburg residents in the years 2005-2007, which has been approved by Russia’s Ministry of IT and Communications and by the city’s Government. The draft Program covers many other territories and inhabited places where telephone installation requires high costs, totaling about 55. They are communities that are generally rather distant from telephone exchanges, and in many cases scarcely populated, such as Levashovo, Novo-Devyatkino, Gorelovo, Lomonosov, Khvoiny, Lenino, etc.