On November 25-26, 2010 a conference of the working team of the “Interactive TV in IP/MPLS Networks” project was held at the A. S. Popov Museum of Communications in St. Petersburg. On the working team are representatives of Svyazinvest JSC, Rostelecom JSC, and all interregional communication companies (IRC.)

The strategic goal of this working team is to win 20% of the Russian pay TV market in the nearest five years (currently the share is about 3%) by further development of infrastructure, by optimizing the solution and by significantly improving the content of the service, and by serious optimization of the sales and promotion system.

The “Interactive TV in IP/MPLS Networks” conference was attended by:

From Svyazinvest:

- Andrei Y. Kholodny, Deputy Director of the Commercial Activity Management Department;

From Rostelecom:

- Pavel A. Zaitsev, Vice-President & Commercial Director,

- Victoria V. Maslova, Commercial Director of the North-Western Branch,

and from IRC, the commercial directors of Sibirtelecom JSC, VolgaTelecom JSC, YuTK JSC, Dalsvyaz JSC, North-West Telecom, CenterTelecom, UralSvyazInform, and executives and representatives of other functional units related to implementation of interactive TV service development projects in the relevant federal districts.

Pavel Zaitsev, Commercial Director of Rostelecom and one of the working team leaders, commented in his speech that, according to leading analysts and consultants, the IPTV service may become a driver of income sources increase for fixed communication operators in a few years. “The pay TV market is a promising one,” noted Pavel Zaitsev, “and all the IRC’s and the future united company should apply their efforts to making a high-quality competitive product, re-orient its activity on the pay TV services market, and win a decent share of that market, getting additional earnings not only from providing the entire infrastructure for data transmission, but also from the content and extra interactive services.”

During the event, all the IRC’s presented their projects of implementation of IP TV services, mentioning the essential achievements and problems of such implementation.

Oleg V. Popov, Deputy General Director and Chief Commercial Director of N.W.Telecom, presented IPTV development in NWFD. He told that currently, about 30,000 subscribers use the Avangard TV service (of which, 21,000 in St. Petersburg, 2,000 in Novgorod Oblast, 2,600 in Kaliningrad Oblast, and 3,500 in the Republic of Komi), and quite soon, residents of three more northern regions of NWFD, i.e. Archangel, Vologda, and Murmansk Oblasts, will be able to get connected to IPTV. “We see a stable positive trend of growing demand and ARPU of the service,” noted Oleg Viktorovich. “Monthly, nearly 1,000 new users get connected to Avangard TV. Besides, over 35% of the IP TV users are already connected using the passive optical network (PON) technology.”

The working team members from Svyazinvest offered, for discussion and further development, a concept of interactive TV services within a common organizational structure, with regard to the trends of development of the pay TV market in and outside Russia and experience of Svyazinvest companies and other telecommunication operators.

Andrei Y. Kholodny, Svyazinvest’s Deputy Director of the Commercial Activity Management Department said that the ability to promote and sell new hi-tech products facing a saturated market and aggressive competition is one of the main targets for IRC in terms of IP TV development. He noted, “Today, in fact every Russian has a TV set, and this means that there are TV operators everywhere already providing such service. And to sell IPTV, one has to apply considerable efforts, and use every available tools and channels.”

“There are good reasons for holding the meeting of the interactive TV working team in the Northern Capital,” emphasized Andrei Kholodny. “St. Petersburg United Branch of N.W.Telecom widely uses active sales, telemarketing, installation services through agents in its practice, and is the most advanced branch in terms of sales, the IP TV service sales in particular. We find this experience very useful, and want North-West Telecom to share this experience with its colleagues.”

On the second day of the conference, during the session work, the participants visited an advanced customer service center of St. Petersburg Branch, N.W.Telecom. This Flagman-format center with up-to-date equipment is located in Nevsky Prospekt. They were shown the algorithm of an Avangard TV service seller, from the product demonstration to contract signing. Another group of IRC representatives visited a classroom where they saw connection of TriplePlay services based on the PON technology.

Finalizing the conference, the attending members of the working team of the “Interactive TV in IP/MPLS Networks” project signed minutes describing the main aspects of optimization and efficiency improvement of the current pay TV business, further development of pay TV in Svyazinvest Group companies and afterwards within the framework of the united company, the goals and the tasks, and the methods and instruments intended to achieve the targets set.