Thread: Internet in Russia

(Please note that I'm speaking as a foreigner living in Russia for some time, and planning to buy a computer, not as a tourist..)

Being a bit of a net-head I'm interested to know what kind of options there are for good internet access in Russia generally (I realize it will probably vary from place to place). I guess what I really mean is, are there any broadband or other high speed options available anywhere in the country? (ADSL, IDSN, cable etc. etc.).
I suppose if you can get it anywhere, it'd be in Moscow?

How do people generally find dial-up connections here? Are they reliable?

thx and sorry for the highly non-linguistic post

I can't say much about situation in other cities, but in Moscow there's already too many companies, providing high-speed Internet connection. In the district I'm living in there is a local network and 3-5 competing companies, offering Internet connection services. Of cause, there's a dial-up connection providers, and so on, but they are a bit obsolete now. The quality of these mostly depends too much from quality of your local ATS (Automatic Telephone Station). Sometimes they are quite older, and commonly function much worse, than more modern types of information services, like cellular phones and cable Internet.

Thanks Scorpio. If you can also answer these questions then you are a
star

I'm not clear what you mean though - when you say 'high speed internet', what technology are you talking about? Is it ADSL (ie using different frequencies on a normal telephone line), cable (like cable TV) or another technology? Or are there several technologies?
What kind of upload and download speeds can you get?
How much does it cost?

thanks

Originally Posted by waxwing

Thanks Scorpio. If you can also answer these questions then you are a
star

I'm not clear what you mean though - when you say 'high speed internet', what technology are you talking about? Is it ADSL (ie using different frequencies on a normal telephone line), cable (like cable TV) or another technology? Or are there several technologies?
What kind of upload and download speeds can you get?
How much does it cost?

thanks

As many programmers, I'm poor expert in hardware

But, as I know, usually it's not a phone line, but a quite separate cable connection. I think, in russian it's called "Витая пара" ("Twisted pair"?)
and you need a network card for your PC.

About prices: if you're interested, I'll post them tomorrow. (I have a couple of old price-lists, but they are at home.)

In 90% of cases it's ethernet twisted pair connection. ISP just installs switches in a building and makes a LAN. Usually it's 100 Mb ethernet LAN.
They install one or more servers per a building (usually Linux) and use ISDL channels among them.

Cool guys , you've been really helpful. Appreciated.
And yes, any info about prices would be great. I just want a general idea, no need for details. Is it generally priced by time, by download /kB or just a flat rate?
What kind of speeds do you realistically get?

Here is my ISP's (http://www.ikr.ru) price-list:
Monthly fee:
con. speed 64 KB/sec(+100 MB free of incoming traffic) 60 roubles
con. speed 128 KB/sec(+200 MB free of incoming traffic) 300 roubles.
con. speed 256 KB/sec(+300 MB free of incoming traffic) 600 roubles
con. speed 384 KB/sec(+400 MB free of incoming traffic) 900 roubles

Outgoing traffic (traffic FROM subscriber) is free.
Incoming traffic price is 2.7 roubles/1 МВ

I use 256 KB/sec connection (but really get 150-200 KB/sec) and my usual monthly bill is 1200 roubles. The real speed you get depends on your ISP's channel to major traffic providers.

Here is my pricelist (www.tc-exe.ru, some small provider with office located 100m from my house). Total three price plans available (I, II, III).

Initial connection: I - $25, II - $50, III - $100. This includes: cable lining, network card & software installation, etc. Some traffic (both income and outcome) is included too: I - 25 Mb, II - 45 Mb, III - 100 Mb.

Monthly payment: I - $7, II - $6, III - $5.

Income traffic (for 1 Mb):

18:00-1:00: I - $0.18, II - $0.13, III - $0.07
1:00-18:00: I - $0.15, II - $0.10, III - $0.06

Some additional services (like static IP-address) are provided too.