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FAS satisfies Rostelecom bid to buy backbone network company

Rostelecom has the largest domestic backbone network

MOSCOW, April 6 (Itar-Tass) — The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) granted a request of Rostelecom on the purchase of RETN CAPITAL LTD, one of the world’s largest backbone networks, it is said in a statement posted on the FAS website on Friday.

“FAS considered the request of Rostelecom on the acquisition of the rights enabling it to determine the conditions of business activity by RetnNet (Russian office of the company) that it gets as a result of acquisition of 100 percent of RETN CAPITAL LTD shares by Rostelecom and decided to grant this request,” the antimonopoly authority said.

Rostelecom is Russia’s national telecommunications operator and now also includes the regional incumbent telecommunications operators (CentreTelecom, SibirTelecom, Dalsvyaz, Uralsvyazinform, VolgaTelecom, North-West Telecom and Southern Telecommunications Company) and Dagsvyazinform. Rostelecom has the largest domestic backbone network (approximately 500 thousand km) and last mile connections to approximately 35 million households in Russia.

RETN (Real Time Network) is an international telecommunications backbone network, providing services of data, voice transfer and IP-traffic between the world’s largest telecommunications nodes and Russia. The network services are used by more than 1,200 Russian and foreign communication operators, Internet exchange points, data centres and about 900 international companies in 24 countries in Europe, Asia and America. Most of the network’s lines and nodes are concentrated in Russia and Europe.

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