Telecommunications in Russia is highly developed and have evolved from the early days of the telegraph to modern fibre broadband and high-speed 4G networks. Due to the enormous size of the country, the country leads in the number of TV broadcast stations and repeaters. The foundation for liberalization of broadcasting was laid by the decree signed by the President of the USSR in 1990. Currently, telecommunication is mainly regulated through the Federal Law "On Communications" and the Federal Law "On Mass Media" Telecommunications in Russia has undergone significant changes since the 1980s, radio was a major new technology in the 1920s. Soviet authorities realized that the amateur radio was highly individualistic and encouraged private initiative. Criminal penalties were imposed but the working solution was to avoid broadcasting over the air. Instead radio programs were transmitted by copper wire, using a hub and spoke system, to loudspeakers in approved listening stations, such as the "Red" corner of a factory. This resulted in thousands of companies licensed to offer communication services today. There were few channels in the Soviet time, but in the past two decades many new state-run and private-owned radio stations and TV channels appeared. The Soviet-time "Ministry of communications of the RSFSR" was through 1990s transformed to "Ministry for communications and informatization" and in 2004 it was renamed to "Ministry of information technologies and communications (Mininformsvyazi)", and since 2008 Ministry of Communications and Mass Media. Censorship and the issue of media freedom in Russia have been main themes since the era of the telegraph. Russia is served by an extensive system of automatic telephone exchanges connected by modern networks of fiber-optic cable, coaxial cable, microwave radio relay, and a domestic satellite system; cellular telephone service is widely available, expanding rapidly, and includes roaming service to foreign countries. Fiber to the x infrastructure has been expanded rapidly in recent years, principally by regional players including Southern Telecom Company, SibirTelecom, ER Telecom and Golden Telecom. Collectively, these players are having a significant impact of fiber broadband in regional areas, and are enabling operators to take advantage of consumer demand for faster access and bundled services. National security considerations have also imposed temporary restrictions on the telecommunications industry. International travelers may even be unable to access roaming data services for an entire 24 hours. Long-distance communication is restricted to specific locations.
Early history
"Networking" can be traced to the spread of mail and journalism in Russia, and information transfer by technical means came to Russia with the telegraph and radio, besides, a 1837 sci-fi novel Year 4338, by the 19th-century Russian philosopher Vladimir Odoevsky, contains predictions such as "friends' houses are connected by means of magnetic telegraphs that allow people who live far from each other to talk to each other" and "household journals" "having replaced regular correspondence" with "information about the hosts’ good or bad health, family news, various thoughts and comments, small inventions, as well as invitations". Computing systems became known in the USSR by the 1950s. Starting from 1952, works were held in the Moscow-based Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering (headed by Sergei Lebedev) on automated missile defense system which used a "computer network" which calculated radar data on test missiles through central machine called M-40 and was interchanging information with smaller remote terminals about 100—200 kilometers distant. The scientists used several locations in the USSR for their works, the largest was a massive test range to the West from Lake Balkhash. In the meantime amateur radio users all over USSR were conducting "P2P" connections with their comrades worldwide using data codes. Later, a massive "automated data network" called Express was launched in 1972 to serve needs of Russian Railways. In 1975, the IT and telecommunications exhibition SVIAZ was launched and has since grown to become the largest such gathering in Eastern Europe and Russia. It is part of the Russian Week of High Technologies and is held yearly in Moscow in the month of April. From the early 1980s the All Union Scientific Research Institute for Applied Computerized Systems (VNIIPAS) was working to implement data connections over the X.25 telephone protocol. A test Soviet connection to Austria in 1982 existed, in 1982 and 1983 there were series of "world computer conferences" at VNIIPAS initiated by the U. N. where USSR was represented by a team of scientists from many Soviet Republics headed by biochemist Anatole Klyosov; the other participating countries were UK, USA, Canada, Sweden, FRG, GDR, Italy, Finland, Philippines, Guatemala, Japan, Thailand, Luxembourg, Denmark, Brazil and New Zealand. Also, in 1983 the San Francisco Moscow Teleport (SFMT) project was started by VNIIPAS and an American team which included George Soros. It resulted in the creation in the latter 80s of the data transfer operator SovAm (Soviet-American) Teleport. Meanwhile, on 1 April 1984, a Fool's Day hoax about "Kremlin computer" Kremvax was made in English-speaking Usenet. There are reports of spontaneous Internet (UUCP and USSR and telnet) connections "from home" through X.25 in the USSR in as early as 1988. In 1990, Skylink GlasNet non-profit initiative by the US-based Association for Progressive Communications sponsored Internet usage in several educational projects in the USSR (through Sovam).
1998 financial crisis
When the Russian economy's collapse came about in August 1998, the market shrank drastically, where cellular operators MTS GSM, Beeline, North West GSM and Skylink were squeezed between low traffic and huge foreign currency denominated credits and telecommunications equipment bills. In 1998, MTS GSM, Beeline, North West GSM and Skylink prepaid subscriptions were made at a loss and infrastructure investments fell. NMT450 operator Moscow Cellular communications was hardest hit due to its about 50% corporate users. The 1998 crisis also caused many regional operators tariff and payment problems with accumulated debt to vendors; large debts were restructured and foreign investors lost out.
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