About the event

On March 17-18, Moscow hosted the XIII International Conference “Transport Networks Russia & CIS: Development of Backbone Communication Networks” organized by ComNews Information Group.

The event dedicated to the development of the telecommunications transport networks market in Russia and the CIS was held in hybrid format and brought together more than 400 participants.

The conference was supported by specialized unions and associations: the Internet of Things Association, the Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC), the Association of Data Center Industry Participants, the RUSSOFT Non-Commercial Partnership, the Fiber Optics Commonwealth Association, the IT & Digital Directors Club and the International Academy of Telecommunications.

MegaFon was the Gold Partner of the conference, Rostelecom was the Partner, and Zummer was the Bronze Sponsor.

Zettaline (ADVA Elite Partner) and T8 took part in the conference in the status of Sponsor and Partner of the session. SUPERTEL was the sponsor of personal protection. Also, the conference was held with the participation of the following companies: GlobalNet, Edinstvo (Norilsk Nickel Group of Companies), NTO IRE-Polyus, Optical Fiber Systems and Center for Interaction of Computer Networks MSK-IX.

The general participants of the exhibition that accompanies traditionally the TransNet conference, were Juniper Networks, PITER-IX, ComSystems and Telecomservice (Teleser). The booth of RASCOM was also presented in the exhibition area.

The first day of the conference was opened by the plenary discussion on the prospects for the trunk transport networks development in Russia and the world. The moderator was Leonid Konik, Director General – Editor-in-Chief, ComNews Group.

The plenary session participants were Ilya Bulaev, Commercial Director, Telia Carrier Russia, Alexander Vlasov, Director for Cooperation with International Operators and Roaming, MegaFon, Andrey Gorbunov, B2O Director, ER-Telecom Holding, Vsevolod Korzhaev, Director for Strategy, Atlas, Konstantin Lukin, Director General, SUPERTEL, Olga Makarova, Director of the Internet and Channel Resources Department, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Georgy Shestakov, Senior Investment Director, VEB Ventures, Sergey Yakovlev, Head of the Department for Work with Telecom Operators, TransTeleKom Company (TTK), Andrey Kukharenko, Lead Engineer of the Department for Development and Strategic Planning, Beltelecom, Dmitry Ostrovsky, Deputy Head of the Department for Development and Strategic Planning, Beltelecom, Igor Kireev, Head of Production at the International Switching Center, Beltelecom.

The discussion experts discussed the current state of Russia’s communication networks, possibilities of creating new communication channels, investments in Russian projects for laying FOCL.

A large-scale second session on technologies and new opportunities for development of telecom infrastructure was held by Sergey Shavkunov, Executive Director, J'son & Partners Consulting. The partner of the session was T8, and the sponsor of the session was Zettaline (ADVA Elite Partner).

During the session, the reports were made by: Alexander Hochmuth, Member of the Board of Directors, Zettaline (ADVA Elite Partner), Yuri Lyubin, Technical Director, Zummer, Jun Fujita, CEO, NTT Russia, Konstantin Lukin, Director General, SUPERTEL, Vladimir Treshchikov, Director General, T8, Alexander Semenyuk, Lead Engineer, Edinstvo (Norilsk Nickel Group of Companies), Roman Venediktov, Executive Director, GlobalNet, Vitaly Shub, Head of the Leading Research Center 5G, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), and Yaroslav Tezadov, Head of the Group for Planning and Calculation of Transport Telecommunication Networks, NTO IRE-Polyus.

The first day of the conference was summed up by the round table on the optical cables production and the fiber optic lines cable-laying. The session was moderated by Leonid Konik, Director General – Editor-in-Chief, ComNews Group.

Before the discussion started, Jonathan Hjembo, Senior Manager in Infrastructure Research, TeleGeography, made a report on the market of backbone transport networks Europe – East Asia in 2022, and Andrey Nikolaev, Director General, Optical Fiber Systems, presented a report on current trends in development of the optical fiber market in Russia.

The discussion on the state and development of the fiber-optic cable and optical fiber market was attended by: Sergey Chizhanov, regional representative in Moscow and the North-West Federal District, Inkab Plant, Dmitry Karaulov, Head of the Center for Control of the Use of Electric Power Facilities, VOLC-VL Management (Rosseti Digital), Andrey Nikolaev, Director General, Optic Fiber Systems, Sergey Shavkunov, Executive Director, J'son & Partners Consulting, Anatoly Galkin, Chief Engineer, TransProjectEngineering, Nikita Korotkov, Lead Engineer, Corning CIS, Sergey Gladkikh, Director General, Moskabel-Fujikura, Dmitry Bagdasaryan, First Vice President, SMARTS.

The second day of the conference began with a rich discussion about the role of data centers, traffic exchange points and CDNs in changing the topology of backbone networks. The session was moderated by Konstantin Novikov, Senior Sales Manager for National Telecom Operators, CDNs and Content Providers, MegaFon. Within the framework of the session, Alexey Solodovnikov, Managing Director in Russia and CIS countries, Uptime Institute, and Igor Dorofeev, President, Association of Data Center Industry Participants, presented their reports.

The following experts took part in the discussion: Nikolai Metlyuk, CEO, PITER-IX, Egor Drobyshev, CEO, Sea-IX, Igor Dorofeev, President, Association of Data Center Industry Participants, Roman Venediktov, Executive Director, GlobalNet, Evgeny Morozov, Commercial Director, Center for Interaction of Computer Networks MSK-IX, Yaroslav Gorodetsky, Director General, CDN Video, Alexey Strekalovskiy, Lead Architect of IT Systems, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Alexey Solodovnikov, Managing Director in Russia and the CIS, Uptime Institute, Alexander Kravchenko, Manager for Product Development, IXcellerate.

The business program of the forum ended with the round table on the influence of content providers on the mainline market. The moderator was Nikita Danilov, Director General, National Federation of the Music Industry.

Key questions about the requirements of content providers for backbone networks, own content of telecom operators, new opportunities for independent CDN networks, as well as how the exit of foreign vendors affected the broadcasting and content market were discussed by experts: Alexey Sokolov, Director of Network Infrastructure Development, Yandex, Konstantin Novikov, Senior Sales Manager for Services to National Telecom Operators and Content Providers, MegaFon, Sergey Samoukin, Head of Corporate Clients, VK Cloud Solutions, Alexander Shirokikh, Director General, National Association of Television and Radio Broadcasters (NAT), Yaroslav Gorodetsky, Director General, SDN Video, Alexey Strekalovskiy, Lead Architect of IT Systems, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS).

ComNews Group thanks all partners, speakers and participants of the Transport Networks Russia & CIS 2022 conference!