Juliana U. Sokolenko

Telecommunication Investment Joint Stock Company (Svyazinvest) is one of the largest telecom holding companies in the world. Its charter capital was formed by consolidation of shares owned by the federal government in regional telecom operators, set up in the process of telecom sector privatization. Svyazinvest incorporates 7 large mega-regional telecom operators, OJSC Giprosvyaz and OJSC Rostelecom, the national domestic long-distance and international operator. Svyazinvest network covers nearly the whole of Russia and its capacity makes up over 90% of the total country's capacity. The holding company's subsidiaries operate public telephone networks which installed capacity is over 33 million telephone lines (of January 1, 2009). Subsidiaries have licenses for provision of local, domestic long-distance and international telephone services, data transmission, etc. They also provide ISDN services, wireless subscriber access and mobile services.