Thread: Privatisation and Telecom...

OK, so here's an unusual request:
I'm supposed to write a paper on the privatization of the telecom sector in Russia. I have a good idea of who the basic players (people and companies) are, but anybody know of any good sites (English or Russian) that give an overview of this or the industry in Russia itself? I know this is a very broad request, but any kind of input or observations you have would be helpful...

Так,вот необычная просьба:
Я должен написать диплом о привитизации в области телекомуникации в России. Я знаю главные лица и компании, но кто-нибудь знает ли полезные сайты, которые говорится о просмотре этой индустрии в России? Я знаю, что это очень широкая просьба, но любые вводи или смысли, которые вы имеете бы было полезены...

Спасибо!

I actually work in the Telecom industry, the last 16 years. This is for a major company here in the US. However we do work all over the world.

I do recall I co-worker having issues with the Telecom industry in Russia.
We sold them some equipement, sent our employees there to install etc..
Besides the normal issue with allow us into the country, they kept a pretty good eye on all foreigners. Specially when it came to working on there phone business. I believe that even though a Russia company purchase the equipement, the government was always with our Engineers.


Unfortunately, the Russia company would purchase our equipement but never our upgrades. So they would always have issue and always be a few years behind on software and even more behind on hardware. Normally here in the US, there are Major software upgrades for the Telecom Industry every 8 months, and more importantly many, many patches every month. So getting behind is not the greatest thing to do. Patches were always free for that current release, but major sofware updates were a cost. This could include new hardware as needed for the software to work properly.

Also, I found this normal with alot of countries as well, except for the US, China, Mexico, Israel, Australia to name a few. They were always wanting the lastest and greatest and were even willing to subject there network to testing the upgrades prior to release. Israel(Pelephone) and Verizon in the US have always been the most "vocal" when it came to upgrades etc...

My group was to travel to Russia this year to perform a trial on WiMax technology, however at the last minute my company gave it to our team in France to perform the testing/trials in Russia.

I dont know of any sites that would talk about this from a vendor point of view. But privatization to me, is be a good thing for Russia.

Originally Posted by Тоби

I actually work in the Telecom industry, the last 16 years. This is for a major company here in the US. However we do work all over the world.

I do recall I co-worker having issues with the Telecom industry in Russia.
We sold them some equipement, sent our employees there to install etc..
Besides the normal issue with allow us into the country, they kept a pretty good eye on all foreigners. Specially when it came to working on there phone business. I believe that even though a Russia company purchase the equipement, the government was always with our Engin

Very cool. Two questions based on what you just said:
-why do you say they "kept a pretty good eye" on you? Because you were foreigners or because they didn't like you working on the telephones or what?
-so would they install the free patches, do you know? I ask because I'm wondering if they didn't purchase software because a)they didn't want to pay or b) they were too lazy. If they installed the patches, that would suggest they were just cash-strapped, and not incompetent. Just a question...

So since you seem to be technically savvy, tell me this: is it considerably easier and cheaper to just build all mobile towers now, since Russia's landlines are so old and underdeveloped (I think I heard somewhere that there is a five-year wait for a landline in some places). I mean, is that a viable alternative, to essentially just forget all the landline stuff and move everything to mobile?

Here are some sites that I have found.

http://www.american.edu/initeb/sw5840a/ ... zation.htm

http://www.american.edu/initeb/sw5840a/ ... ucture.htm

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet ... 8181e.html

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/eur/WTDC02/Documents/15e.pdf

http://www.buyusainfo.net/docs/x_3253084.pdf

http://www.russiansabroad.com/russian_history_242.html

From my company site
http://www.nortel.com/corporate/pressro ... ussia.html

http://www.nortel.com/corporate/pressro ... sia_v2.pdf

You can go to this site and do a search on "Russia" and find articles as well.
http://search.nortel.com/go/query.jsp?p ... eSection=0

Originally Posted by Бармалей

Very cool. Two questions based on what you just said:
-why do you say they "kept a pretty good eye" on you? Because you were foreigners or because they didn't like you working on the telephones or what?

I believe it was because we were foreigners and we were working on there equipement. Working in the telecommunications field you do have access to classified data. So I believe they did this for that reason.
We have the same type issues here in the US, but they do not have folks with us most of the times.
So basically we could monitor calls, see who called who, etc.. Although we stay away from that no matter what, its always a security risk. We just were not used to be "followed". From the hotel to the site and back.

Code:

-so would they install the free patches, do you know? I ask because I'm wondering if they didn't purchase software because a)they didn't want to pay or  b) they were too lazy. If they installed the patches, that would suggest they were just cash-strapped, and not incompetent. Just a question...

I believe the had the patches, as we would send them no matter what. However they did not have it as a routine to install. So if they called us concerning an issue we would right away look at patches and tell them to install them first and see if the issue is still there. So I dont want to say lazy per se, because maintaining this equipement is alot more then maintaining your PC. But it is still essential. So it was not incompetence, more of having the right folks and the right number of folks maintaining the network. I dont believe they had the right number of folks that was needed.

As for the actual upgrades which involves some hardware and of course the software, I believe it was cash that was the problem. This is an expensive option, and we(just like any other telecom company) also charge to "unlock" certain features, which in turn companies then charge you. Such as Call Waiting, or Call forwarding, Last number redial, etc...
We have a one time charge, dont know what that is, I am not in the sales dept. but thats why here in the US it was always a seperate charge. These days because of competition, companies raise the flat fee for basic service but give you all the additional features/options. In the cellular world it is almost always part of the deal. Money these days is in SMS messages, Pic Messages, Ring Tones and MP3. So they charge you for those seperately.

Code:

So since you seem to be technically savvy, tell me this: is it considerably easier and cheaper to just build all mobile towers now, since Russia's landlines are so old and underdeveloped (I think I heard somewhere that there is a five-year wait for a landline in some places). I mean, is that a viable alternative, to essentially just forget all the landline stuff and move everything to mobile?

I would say these days, the best way to go is Wireless, I was one of the lucky few that was the first to be involved in the new developement of CDMA. Sprint purchase this and we had to build it from the ground up. Sprint at the time, owned ZERO towers so it was really expensive. These days in the US, cities/states have gotten envolved due to the fact that there are way to many towers. So rules were made, rules such as.

1. Companies have to share space on same tower. Pay lease to current owner of tower.
2. Create towers that are better looking for the environment, meaning towers that actually look like trees. You would be amazed, they actually look like trees.
3. Use existing buildings instead of towers. The sites can go up on top of the roof of high rise buildings.

Rules like that helped drive down the costs of building new towers.
I would say in Russia this should be taken into consideration as well.
There is no real reason to develop the current land line because mobile is developing very quickly. These days in the states we can search the internet on our mobiles.
I am currently managing a team that is testing our latest product out in California, this will be released sometime in the middle of 2007. But it is going to make it faster to surf the web via your phone, pda, or laptop using the wireless infrastructure. You will be able to get up to 2.5Mbps speed which is better then DSL!
So its coming, and for example, it is just a simple upgrade at each site, so 90% of the site stays the same hardware wise, we just install a new card, something like installing a new Video Card into your PC. The slot is already there. Then of course the software to go with it.
Go Wireless!

Originally Posted by Бармалей

Так,вот необычная просьба:
Я должен написать диплом о приватизации в области телекоммуникации в России. Мне известны главные действующие лица и компании, но не знает ли кто-нибудь полезные сайты, где говорится о просмотре(? it doesn't make sense here) этой индустрии в России? Я знаю, что это очень пространная просьба, но любые вводы (it doesn't make sense here; maybe "предложения"?) или смысли, которые вы имеете ("которые у вас есть" is much better), были бы полезны...

Overview - буквально вид сверху. Не знаю, как получше перевести. Может обзор, короткое обозрение?

Originally Posted by Lampada

Не знаю, как получше перевести. Может обзор?

Precisely

Спросил у друга Гугля?

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=%D1%8 ... afe=images

Originally Posted by chaika

Спросил у друга Гугля?

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=%D1%8 ... afe=images

О ПРВДА? А что такой этот сайт Гугл? Это новый сайт? Я никогда не слышал о нем!

Originally Posted by Бармалей

О ПРАВДА? А что такое этот сайт Гугль?