OREANDA-NEWS. On 25 March 2008 “COMSTAR – United TeleSystems” JSC, the leading combined telecommunications operator in Russia and the CIS, announced that its total broadband subscriber base in the Russian regions reached 50,000 customers on March 21. The number of broadband residential and corporate subscribers in the regions has increased by 25%, or 10,000 customers since the beginning of 2008.

Comstar has recently implemented several technical and marketing projects aimed at expanding Comstar’s share in the broadband market and increasing its subscriber base.

The growth reflects the increase in access point capacity, the installation of DSLAM equipment, and the building of backbone and “last-mile” networks. Comstar’s subsidiary, Tyumenneftegassvyaz, has completed the fist stage build-out of a backbone radio relay network, which increased local data transmission speeds by 10 times. This enhanced offering, combined with broad marketing campaigns, resulted in a 40% growth to 5,000 customers in the broadband subscriber base in the Tyumen region since the beginning of the year.

Recently acquired Digital Telephone Networks South (“DTN”), which is Comstar’s subsidiary in the Rostov region, has demonstrated the most significant broadband subscriber base growth, adding over 5,000 clients since the beginning of 2008. DTN achieved a total base of over 37,000 broadband subscribers by March 21.

Comstar also continues to add subscribers in those regions where technical upgrades were only launched during the second half of 2007, including Saratov where a Next Generation Network consisting of 22 access points and covering the whole city was launched in September 2007. The number of broadband subscribers in Saratov increased from 2,500 at the end of 2007 to 4,500 by March 21.

Sergey Pridantsev, President and Chief Executive Officer of Comstar UTS, commented: “Comstar’s regional operations have demonstrated impressive subscriber growth. The acceleration in subscriber acquisition reflected a number of successful initiatives over the past few months. The 50,000 subscriber milestone is an important one and we expect the growth rate and market share gains to continue throughout the year.”