In august 2005 Electrosvyaz of the Republic of Karelia, the branch of the OJSC North-West Telecom, registered the 1000th customer of its broadband internet access services with use of the ADSL technology.  This was Rustam Fatkullin from Petrozavodsk who was awarded an ADSL-modem and free connection. 

To promote its services, the branch introduced a special offer during which everybody who wanted to access Internet using ADSL technology could bring another potential customer and receive a substantial discount for both of them.

The fast speed of the ADSL technology allows comfortable work with web-sites, quick download of large files and documents, work with multimedia and full use of interactive applications.  This attracts both business customers and individual users. 

The ADSL technology also offers other important advantages. The principle one is the availability of the phone line while being online.  In addition it provides better quality of connection as compared to the satellite or wireless access, which approaches the quality of the optical line.  When compared to the separate channel connection, ADSL does not require available wire or separate channel if more than one resident in the house needs Internet. 

This service is very popular: for example, in the capital of Karelia, the city of Petrozavodsk more than 70 subscribers join the service every month.