May 6, 2010, Moscow: COMSTAR – United TeleSystems (JSC COMSTAR-UTS, LSE: CMST), the leading provider of integrated telecommunication services in Russia and the CIS, and Bezeq International Ltd., the largest telecom operator in Israel, announce they have concluded network interaction agreement and launched cooperation procedure to initiate, provide transit, and terminate telephone traffic. Connection of both operator telephone networks was accomplished in one of the largest European centers for voice traffic exchange Telehouse North in London.

The agreement determines organization, technical and economic terms to initiate, provide mutual transit and terrestrialize international voice traffic via their telecom equipment and network resources. Cooperation normatives documented in the agreement define high level quality of distant communication services the operators ensure to their users. Thanks to the beginning of mutual cooperation in traffic transit and termination, both operators may now directly, with no third-party operators involvement, terminate calls from their network to the partner network, which enables them not just provide quality services, but streamline expenditures for distant call service provision.

“Direct interaction between the networks with overseas telecom operators enables us to provide quality telecom services at attractive tariffs in all presence points of COMSTAR-UTS Group in Russia, especially in Moscow, where our affiliate, MGTS provides their services for more than 4 million private and corporate users. By end of Q1 2010 more than 750 thousand subscribers of MGTS made their choice in favor of COMSTAR-UTS as the main distant call operator, with more than 200 thousand of the subscribers using operator services on a ‘hot choice’ basis,” COMSTAR-UTS Vice President Aleksey Goncharuk said.

Bezeq is the first telecom operator COMSTAR-UTS began network interaction with via traffic exchange center in London. At present, COMSTAR-UTS are in the process of negotiations with some other telecom operators. Besides, the company already made connection points with some 20 international telecom operators, such as TeliaSonera, Telecom Italia Sparkle, Deutsche Telekom, and Verizon among them, in Ancotel GmbH center of network interaction in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The 3rd connection center where telecom operator works is situated in Kiev, the Ukraine.

In February 2008, COMSTAR-UTS accomplished roll-out of a distant call communication network. The network is based on a next-generation solution (NGN) allowing the company to provide voice services and launch new multimedia operations. In August 2008, COMSTAR-UTS was granted telecom operator choice codes to provide subscriber access to interurban and international telecom services provided by the company: 23 for interurban calls and 28 for international calls, with distant telecom service provision being launched in autumn 2008.