In 2006 North-West Telecom continued implementing the "Programme of Providing Telecommunication Services to Residents of St. Petersburg for the Years 2005-2007".

In the course of implementing the provisions of the Programme the queue for telephone installation in St. Petersburg was reduced 3.5 times for a year and a half in the period from 1.01.2005 till 1.07.2006. While as of 1st January 2005 the number of unsatisfied applications was 56,700, as of 1st July 2006 it was 15,300 (taking into account that the St. Petersburg branch of OJSC NWT received over 36,000 applications during 2005 and more that 17,000 in the first six months of 2006).

Only for 6 months of 2006 (from 01.01.06 till 01.07.06) the St. Petersburg branch of OJSC NWT satisfied almost 10,000 applications for telephone installation, received by the communication operator before 1st January 2006, and 11,400 applications filed in 2006.   

One of the priorities in the operation of OJSC NWT is the preferential telephone installation for veterans of the Great Patriotic War and equal categories of citizens.  209 telephone connections were installed for the first six months of 2006 for the disabled and participants of the Great Patriotic War, equal privileged categories of citizens and residents of the sieged Leningrad. As a result, by 1st July 2006 there were no unsatisfied applications for telephone installation from the said category of citizens in the St. Petersburg branch.   

The purpose of the Programme of Providing Telecommunication Services to Residents of St. Petersburg is both to eliminate the queue for telephone installation and to provide telephone communication for remote territories and districts of the megapolis, as well as to improve the quality of provided services through upgrading the telecommunication networks of the city.

By 1st July 2006 North-West Telecom switched over all decade-step exchanges and several crossbar offices of St. Petersburg to digital equipment. The total number capacity that has been replaced by digital equipment is about 88,000 numbers. One of the large-scale projects and an important event for the communication workers has been the replacement of the last decade-step exchange in St. Petersburg, ATS N262-267 Shchemilovskaya, by a digital one in May 2006.     

The development of the city telephone network of the Northern Capital is one of the basic investment projects of OJSC NWT in the Northwestern Federal District, for which up to 35% of the total volume of Company's investment is expected to be spent.    Over 13,000 new telephone numbers were commissioned by the St. Petersburg branch of OJSC North-West Telecom in the framework of the investment programme for 6 months. The installed capacity of the St. Petersburg branch grew to 2,100,000 numbers, while the operating capacity was 1,970,000 numbers. 

North-West Telecom is a company, which fulfils the undertaken obligations. Provided the Programme is successfully implemented, by the year 1998 the queue for telephone installation in St. Petersburg will be eliminated, and all newly filed applications will be satisfied within 6 months.