August 17, 2009, Moscow. COMSTAR – United TeleSystems (COMSTAR-UTS, LSE: CMST), the leading supplier of integrated telecommunication solutions in Russia and the CIS, has completed another stage of expansion of its intercity and international communication network, under which all network segments have been united and Moscow has been chosen as a center for international traffic consolidation.

Now, all intercity and international traffic of COMSTAR-UTS passes along IP VPN – high-speed backbone links – directly to Moscow center for COMSTAR-UTS international traffic consolidation (Moscow International Communication Node).

Besides, COMSTAR-UTS has determined two best routes for international traffic delivery based on TDM technology. These are Moscow – Frankfurt am Main and Moscow – Kiev.

COMSTAR-UTS has used one of the world largest telecommunication nodes located in Frankfurt am Main to arrange points of connection with ten telecom operators, including Telecom Sparkle Italia, Telia Sonera and TDC Baltic Wireless. The Company is holding negotiations on connection with more than 10 other renowned operators. A large number of independent points of connection allows COMSTAR-UTS to eliminate dependence on one operator when passing the international traffic, increase network reliability and efficiently manage costs on international traffic passing. Besides, COMSTAR-UTS provides redundancy of the whole network in Russia having entered into agreements for traffic passing with all largest Russian transit operators.

COMSTAR-UTS provides all of its contracting agents who have concluded the contract for connection in Frankfurt am Main with best quality services of traffic termination in Moscow fixed networks (including handling IDSN* calls, calling line identification, guaranteed quality of fax and modem connections) at a rate attractive for overseas telecom operators. Further on, COMSTAR-UTS plans to provide termination services in all cities where it currently provides intercity and international communication services – Saint Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Orenburg, Saratov, Samara, Surgut and Ryazan.

In Kiev, affiliated company COMSTAR-Ukraine has been connected, and this segment has become a part of the common long-distance communication network of the Group. Near-term plans of COMSTAR-UTS include interconnection of its network with a network of another affiliate – Armenian KORNET-AM and connection in Yerevan.

Alexey Goncharuk, Senior Vice President of COMSTAR-UTS, says: “We are constantly improving service quality of our long-distance communication network by introducing new attractive offers to our subscribers, upgrading the network and increasing the number of our telecom partners. A scope of our long-distance communication services is constantly increasing: for example, over the last two months, the incoming traffic average volume has increased by 70%, while the volume of the traffic terminated in our Moscow network has increased manifold, primarily due to active growth of connected overseas operators. Further on, we are planning to arrange connection to our overseas partners based on VoIP technology in order to route the voice traffic only at lower rates, which will significantly affect call cost for our subscribers and enhance channel redundancy.”