OREANDA-NEWS. On 27 February 2008 was announced, that “Comstar – United TeleSystems” JSC, the leading combined telecommunications operator in Russia and the CIS, today announced that Comstar-Direct, its majority owned subsidiary and the largest broadband service provider in Moscow operating under the “STREAM” brand, has soft-launched the High-Definition Television (“HDTV”) service.

The soft-launch will last till June 1, 2008, and involves an access to four TV channels –Discovery HD, MelodyZen, Luxe TV and Voom HD – as well as a package of 10 films using the video-on-demand service. The number of available TV channels and films will be expanded in the near future.

Sergey Pridantsev, President and Chief Executive Officer of Comstar UTS, commented: “The Moscow broadband market has reached an advanced stage of development. Today, our subscribers are interested not only in access to high speeds, but also in exciting and high-quality content. We are planning to provide our clients with both HDTV and high-speed internet access.”

Once the HDTV service is fully launched, subscribers will be offered a variety of tariff plans which will include high-speed internet access (with speeds from 1 Mbits per second to 10 Mbits per second), as well as IP-TV with a broad choice of TV channels and services provided under the “STREAM” brand.

The soft-launch of HDTV was implemented simultaneously with the commencement of MGTS’ “last mile” modernization project, which will enable the technical infrastructure for HDTV services. Within the framework of the 2-year modernization programme, MGTS network will add fibre-optic connections from automated telephone exchanges to the subscribers’ homes, as well as ADSL2+ equipment installed in the subscribers’ homes. The data transmission speed of the modernized parts of the network will increase from 6 Mbits per second to 24 Mbits per second. More than 80% of Comstar broadband services subscribers are expected to have the internet access with a speed of over 24 Mbits per second, as well as HDTV services by the end of 2009. In order to view films and TV programmes in the HDTV format, a special ADSL2+ modem and an HDTV compliant decoder are required. ADSL2+ modems are already sold and rented by Comstar Direct. The current HDTV equipment also supports existing TV formats.