OREANDA-NEWS. August 13, 2010. COMSTAR – United TeleSystems (COMSTAR-UTS, LSE: CMST), a leading provider of integrated telecom services in Russia and the CIS, together with Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) arranged a volunteer charity tour Green Train to Tver and provided high-speed fixed and mobile Internet as well as multi-channel TV to the Rehabilitation Center for Children and Teenagers with Disabilities and a number of Tver families with disabled children.

The Green Train is an initiative of COMSTAR-UTS Group to support development of social projects in Russian regions where the national operator is presented. The green tour was held for the first time a year before in Ryazan (for details click here).

This year a volunteer team including top managers and ordinary workers of COMSTAR-UTS, COMSTAR-Regions, Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS) and Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) as well as representatives of the federal mass media and telecom analysts went to Tver, a town with a well established practice of patronage, to support Tver families with disabled children. Representatives of local COMSTAR and MTS offices, regional mass media, social organizations and public authorities also joined this team.

In the Tver Rehabilitation Center for Children and Teenagers with Disabilities under support of the Tver fund Dobroe Nachalo there was held a charity event related to connection of this socially important establishment to the modern communication services, i.e. broadband Internet and cable TV. Now children can watch over 60 children’s and family channels (Bibigon, Telenanny, Jetix, Detsky Mir, etc.) on a new plasma panel.

50 families with disabled children in Tver were connected to cable TV from COMSTAR for free and got a free-of-charge mobile access and corresponding equipment from MTS. Some families got certificates for COMSTAR TV network connection and 3G modems from MTS with a special unlimited tariff at the ceremony already which was attended by representatives of the Tver Region Administration (Transport and Communications Department, Social Safety Department, Territorial and Information Policy Department, Natural Resources and Environmental Safety Agency), Deputy Director General – Commercial Director of COMSTAR-Regions Dmitry Bagdasaryan, Deputy Director – Commercial Director of the Central Branch of COMSTAR-Regions Elena Pasnuk, Director of the Tver Telecom Center of the Central Branch of COMSTAR-Regions Aleksey Kartashev, Director for Subscriber Service of the MTS Center macro region Viktor Belyavsky.

The companies transferred the humanitarian aid for families (clothes for kids, development games, movies, etc.) to the Dobroe Nachalo fund and special educational literature to the Rehabilitation Center. The culminating point of the event was improvement of the center territory and opening a sport and playground facility for kids.

“We pay much attention to the social and economical development of cities and towns of our presence as our main goal as a federal telecom operator covering over 80 cities and towns of Russia is to make modern telecom services available and affordable for all categories of users, i.e. to bridge the digital gap. According to our corporate social policy, communication technologies should be used for the benefit of local communities, especially for nurture, education and social adaptation of children who faced difficulties in their lives,” Viktor Koresh, Vice President for Regional Development of COMSTAR-UTS and Director General of COMSTAR-Regions, notes. “I hope our activity in partnership with government and public organizations will contribute to extended opportunities for those who need it the most. I’d like to add that similar events to support socially important establishments were held in parallel and are regularly arranged in different parts of the country.”

“MTS pays much attention to social responsibility, improvement of the quality of people’s life and building a harmonious society in all the regions of Russia. We implement a number of federal and regional programs to support children creativity and education, development of young talents. I believe that affordable and easy-to-use mobile Internet technologies will become for the Tver families a good aid in nurture and education of their children, will drive their development and integration to the modern society,” Viktor Belyavsky, Director for Subscriber Service of MTS Center, says.

“It’s wonderful that the business doesn’t stay away from the social issues. COMSTAR and MTS did their bit to help children with disabilities. We are glad to see how social charity is developing and expanding. This proves that in harmony between the business and the society even small acts of kindness can become very significant,” Svetlana Verzhbitskaya, Director of the Dobroe Nachalo charity fund and chairman of the Regular Committee for Social Policy of the Tver Duma, says.

Director of the Rehabilitation Center Valery Melnikov thanked Green Train participants and underlined that TV and the Internet are indispensable conditions of children nurture and education, including distance methods, and the kid’s playground and improved territory of the center where now you can see swing, carrousel, flowers and funny pictures on the walls will leave good memories about this day.