OREANDA-NEWS. September 07, 2009. Governor of Pskov Region Andrey Turchak and CEO of OJSC NWT Vladimir Akulich , at a meeting held in Pskov, signed Agreement of Mutual Cooperation between the Administration of Pskov Region and Open Joint-Stock Company North-West Telecom, and discussed the prospects for development of telecommunications in the region for 2009-2010.

The Agreement identified the following key areas of cooperation between the Administration of Pskov Region and OJSC NWT :
elaboration and implementation of programmes aimed at developing communications networks in the region to ensure the integration of telecommunications networks into the unified information and telecommunications space in Russia
implementation of socially important programmes and projects in the Pskov region;
taking of provisions for the social orientation of the decisions and activities in the field of telecommunication in the Pskov region.

Notably, the meeting between the Governor of Pskov Region and the CEO of OJSC NWT was held on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the Pskov Regional Communications Department to which the Pskov Branch of OJSC NWT is the successor.

Over the above period the Company invested more than 3 billion roubles to develop and upgrade the communications networks in the Pskov region. The construction of fibre optics communications lines has continued in the region, and by the date of signing the Agreement their extension was over 1,000 km, with 22 out of 24 districts of the Pskov region covered by a fibre optics ring with 100% channel redundancy. The digitalization rate of the Pskov Branch of OJSC NWT is 96.7%, one of the highest telephone network digitalization ratios for the regions of the Northwest Federal District. In recent years, the most fast developing service in the region has been broadband access (BBA) to the Internet provided by NWT. The installed BBA capacity in the Pskov region today is 38,000 xDSL ports.

Being a leader in telecommunications, OJSC North-West Telecom attaches great attention to the social responsibility of business and takes an active part in the implementation of socially important projects. For instance, as part of the Education National Project 330 schools in the Pskov region were connected to the Internet in 2006-2007. 7,214 universal service paid phones were installed in the region during 2007-2008, including remote and hard-to-reach areas.

Commenting the result of the Company’s operation in the Pskov region Andrey Turchak said that OJSC NWT is one of the largest companies in the region and one of the five leading entities by the amount of taxes paid to the budget of the Pskov region.   “That’s why we cannot but welcome the positive dynamics of the Company. We are “ doomed ” for cooperation ,” the Governor concluded .

NWT’s CEO Vladimir Akulich stressed that ”the Agreement provides opportunities for further mutually beneficial and fruitful cooperation including the continuation of the upgrading of the data transfer network in the Pskov region to expand the throughput up to 10 GBits/sec. The digitalization of the communications network in the region will be progressively brought to 100 percent, and the fibre optics will reach each provincial centre in the region. Before long, our company will provide to the population of the Pskov region the Triple Play, an advanced package of   telecommunications services including high-speed Internet access, telephony and single-channel digital TV.”