About the event

TransNet’18: New communication routes
 
The 9th International Conference Transport Networks Russia 2018 – Transport Telecommunications Networks Development in Russia and CIS, held in Moscow on March 22-23, was a big success. The largest annual forum dedicated to the transport network market in Russia brought together backbone transport network operators, mobile and fixed service providers, corporate and departmental network operators, researchers, vendors of infrastructure equipment, system integrators, market consultants and analysts, investment companies, and business and industry media.
 
Golden sponsors of Transport Networks Russia 2018 were Huawei and TransTeleCom» (ТТК), Silver – Transneft Telecom, Ciena and ADV Consulting. Rostelecom was Partner of the event, while the list of Bronze Sponsors included NOKIA, VIAVI, VILCOM HOLDING and NTO IRE-Polus. CenturyLink was Telecommunication Partner of the Conference, Lifestream (Smotreshka) was ОТТ-partner, T8 was Session Partner, UL-com Media was Session Sponsor, Peering (DATAIX) and MSK-IX were Round Table Sponsors. The event was also supported by SUPERTEL, Zummer and Brain4Net. Ekinops, Anritsu Corporation and Research & Development Partners (RDP.RU) showcased their solutions to the audience as General Exponents. Partners of the negotiation zone were TransTeleCom (TTK), RASCOM, MTS and CenturyLink.
 
The event was endorsed by the Federal Communications Agency (Rossviaz), the Fibre Optic Association, International Academy of Communications (МАС), the IoT Association and more than 30 industry media.
 
TransNet 2018 was kicked off by a round table dedicated to partnership and competition in the backbone market. Panelists included: Rostelecom’s Director International Wholesales Maksim Akinin, Head of Network Resource Planning Department from Orange Business Services Russia and CIS Alexey Antonentko, Carrier Business Director of China Unicom (Russia) Shamil Gabitov, CenturyLink’s Regional Manager Russia and CIS Andrey Ermurak, MTS’ Director of Internet and Channel Resources of Carrier Business Block Olga Makarova, Transneft Telecom’s Head of Business Development Management Oleg Matyushenko, MegaFon’s Head of National Carriers and Content Providers Business Konstantin Novikov and TTK’s Wholesale Business Director Sergey Yakovlev.  They discussed new routes of international traffic transit and new Russian fiber optic routes, changes in the business model of a Russian backbone operator facing a decline in business profitability, opportunities to reduce costs of services in the backbone market and optimize infrastructure, redundancy management in the backbone market, sustainability of business model of “assembled” routes from several carriers. The audience was also very eager to discuss what costs more – Runet or ChinaNet and the reasons of the decline in Europe-Asia traffic transit across Russia. 
The next two sessions of TransNet 2018, moderated by Executive Director of J’son & Partners Consulting Sergey Shavkunov, were dedicated to new technologies in transport networks. Speakers included: Head of Area Office CIS of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Kirill Oparin, TransTeleCom’s Head of Marketing and Sales Support Ilya Gudenko, Huawei’s DWDM Global Solution Sales Manager Claudio Lugary, Deputy Director General of UL-com Media Larisa Contar, CTO of North-Western Branch of ADV Consulting Stanislav Shatov, Head of consulting Engineering team ION department East Europe MU at Nokia Semen Kogan, SUPERTEL’s Deputy Director General – Director for Telecommunication Projects Konstantin Lukin, T8’s Deputy Director General Konstantin Marchenko, Vodafone Russia’s Senior Solution Consultant Alexander Kotov, Head of Telecom Equipment Division of IRE-Polus Renat Musin, Project Manager from IRE-Polus Yaroslav Tezadov, Viavi Solutions’ Head of Representative Office in Russia and CIS Denis Sladkih and Business Development Director and Managing Partner of Lifestream (Smotreshka) Zharkyn Tursynov.
 
The first day of the conference concluded with a round table entitled “Synergy in practice: cooperation between departmental, commercial, federal and municipal communication service providers”. Panelists included: Board Chairman of RoTeK Dmitry Miroshnikov, Head of Telecommunications at MRSK Center Anton Britko, International Sales Director of HAWE Telekom Przemysław Gągała, Project Director at Carrier Department of TransTeleCom (TTK) Elena Kiryushina, Director of International Projects of Latvian State Radio and Television Center Valery Makarov, CTO and CIO of Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS) Alexander Trokhin, and Rostelecom’s Director of Infrastructure Projects Konstantin Khrulkov 
 
The first day of the event ended with a reception, where the delegates and speakers could network and discuss the important issues in a relaxed informal setting.
The second day of TransNet 2018 started with a session that was meant to look into the ways to deliver content to end users and enhance customer experience. The session gathered the following speakers: independent expert Alexey Rogdev, CTO of Corning CIS Sergey Akopov, Director of the Central Research and Development Institute of Communications Tatiana Ledovskikh, Deputy General Director for Academic Affairs of the Central Research and Development Institute of Communications Vladimir Efimushkin, CenturyLink’s Account Direct in Russia and CIS Andrey Kolomiets, and Dmitry Zmeev, Products and Marketing Director of Brain4Net.
 
The round table “New services and partnership opportunities in Internet Exchange (IX)” aroused vivid interest in the audience. Panelists included: DataLine’s Business Development Director Pavel Zavyalov, CTO of Platform24 Yury Balandin, Director General of Peering (DATAIX) Roman Venediktov, Director General of Sea-IX Egor Drobyshev, Director for Infrastructure of ivi.ru Sergey Mitin, CCO of MSK-IX Evgeny Morozov, and General Director of Serbian Open eXchange Zoran Perovic.
 
A round table that concluded the international conference looked into the evolution of the market landscape as traffic structure is changing, and the impact of content in these processes. Panelists included Director of Internet Video Association Alexey Byrdin, MegaFon’s Director for International Carrier and Roaming Business Konstantin Novikov, FAS Russia’s head of ICT Regulation Department Elena Zaeva, TTK’s Head of Product and Marketing Alexey Kipchatov, Director of the IoT Association Andrey Kolesnikov, MTS’ Director of Internet and Channel Resources of Carrier Business Block Olga Makarova, External Relations Officer of RIPE NCC Alexey Semenyaka, Yandex’ Director for Network Infrastructure Alexey Sokolov, and Business Development Director and Managing Partner of Lifestream (Smotreshka) Zharkyn Tursynov.
 
This year, TransNet was attended by more than 350 delegates, who commended the organization of the event, an insightful program and excellent networking opportunities.