OREANDA-NEWS. On 08 April 2008 was announced, that COMSTAR – United TeleSystems (COMSTAR-UTS JSC, LSE: CMST), the largest supplier of integrated telecommunication solutions in Russia and the CIS, was a communication service provider for the summit between the Presidents of Russia and the USA in Sochi on April 6, 2008.

COMSTAR-UTS participated in the organization of the summit by the request from the U.S. Department of State through the U.S. Embassy in the Russian Federation.

COMSTAR-UTS provided integrated communication services – local, long-distance and international communications, broadband Internet, including Wi-Fi-based access – to the business center and press center of the U.S. Embassy in the Russian Federation, the White House Communications Agency, the Office of the U.S. Secretary of State, and the common press center in Zhemchuzhina Hotel. In the press center, where the leading television and radio broadcasting companies, information agencies, and print media worked, there were organized working places equipped with a local telephone line and dedicated broadband Internet channel. The center as well as the Residence of the Russian President Bocharov Ruchey was provided with Wi-Fi hotspots.

All the services were provided with 100% redundancy through local and backbone communication channels of third party operators. The U.S. partner of COMSTAR-UTS under this project was the largest telecom operator AT&T.

Viktor Koresh, Vice President for Regional Development, COMSTAR-UTS, commented on the company's involvement in organizing the U.S.-Russia summit as follows: "The U.S. Department of State has contacted us as a company, which had proved itself as a reliable partner and large provider of modern telecommunication solutions, which has all the resources required to implement such an important governmental task, including telephone network capacity, network infrastructure, and skilled staff in Sochi. This project is also important because it has been implemented over a very short period of time with active involvement and support from Yuzhnaya Telecommunication Company, which provided additional network capacity to ensure complete redundancy for all the services, and RTKomm.Ru, which extended the capacity of the Internet backbones in a timely manner. I hope that such an experience of mutually beneficial cooperation will drive long-term partnerships between our companies."