OREANDA-NEWS. On 11 January 2008 was announced, that “Sibirtelecom” came to the final point of the largest multiservice network constructed in Siberia. In December the Company completed the construction of fiber-optic communication line with 465 km of total length in the Republic of Buryatia and Irkutsk Region.

For citizens of the Siberian Region and the Company itself, the multiservice network project has been the most important one during the last several years. It was named “the construction project of the century” for Siberia, having compared it with the construction of Baikal-Amur Mainline on a local scale. The “Sibirtelecom” multiservice network will cover all 11 regions of the Federal Districts from Omsk to Chita and will make it possible to provide the whole package of Triple Play services (high-speed Internet, digital television and telephony) and state-of-the-art communication services to settlements remote from centres where the telephone is still a piece of luxury.

“Construction of “Sibirtelecom” multiservice network is one of the biggest investment projects of the company that is unique in Siberia, - says Alexander Isaev, General Director of “Sibirtelecom” OJSC, - It is an electronic nervous system that will bring life to all places of our big region. And if citizens of big cities do not imagine their life without Internet and digital television, Siberians from small towns will also be active users of modern telecommunication services.”

The project is implemented jointly with “Trest “Svyazstroi-6” OJSC, General Contract. The construction of the fiber-optic communication line that connected Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia, and Irkutsk, the regional centre was the most difficult section of the multiservice network. The construction of this object continued for about two years, though the multiservice network project has been in implementation since 2005. The cable was laid near the Baikal Lake under complex natural and climatic conditions: in inundated lands and mountainous areas, in woodlands and ponds. The contractors used special equipment to lay cable in soils of high complexity category and to move tractors along the object. Over 30 km of cable was laid manually in the area impassible for the equipment. In whole, about 300 people and over 80 pieces of equipment was attracted for the construction of this object.

“In the many years of our work, we got involved in such a complex project for the first time, - said Vladimir Ageyev, General Director of “Trest “Svyazstroi-6” OJSC, - Despite all difficulties that arose during the network construction, we performed our obligations to “Sibirtelecom” Company and did our job with honour.”

“Sibirtelecom” OJSC plans to finish the construction of the multiservice network and to bring it into operation in the first quarter of 2009.