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Russian Arctic may go online by 2021 — telecoms company chief

Total project cost will be below 7 bln rubles ($122.6 mln)

MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS/. Russian satellite communication provider Zond-Holding is developing a project in cooperation with AO Information Satellite Systems to provide Internet in the Russian Arctic by 2020-2021, Chief Executive of Zond-Holding Victor Doniants told TASS on Tuesday on the verge of the International Arctic Forum.

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"We have a high-speed satellite Internet project; we are developing it in cooperation with AO Information Satellite Systems in Krasnoyarsk. The project comprises six service and one backup satellite on the medium-altitude orbit," Doniants said.

Total project cost will not exceed 7 bln rubles ($122.6 mln), the top manager added.

"We plan to create a reduced spacecraft prototype and launch it to the orbit, where we will perform technology experiments with it. If we receive a grant from Skolkovo Foundation and agree upon a side launch with Roscosmos, then the satellite prototype may be launched in 2019," head of Zond-Holding said.

"If we are given a green light, we will need our own rocket to launch a real group. Everything will be determined by rocket manufacturing cycle in this case. Thus the system will go live by 2020-2021 approximately and the Arctic Region will have communication," Doniants said.

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