ABOUT THE EVENT

On May 28, ComNews Group held the International Online Conference TransNet Digital: Express-test On The Viability Of The Backbone Market In The Aftermath Of COVID-19”. The online event gathered 412 viewers, including 20 speakers.

Rostelecom and Juniper Networks were Strategic Partners of the forum, and the list of Partners included Т8, SUPERTEL, Light Density and CenturyLink.

The conference was supported by ADV Consulting system integrator, Ciena, Transneft Telecom, Keysight Technologies, SVIAZ CONNECT, Optic Fiber Systems and World Class. Besides, it was endorsed by the IoT Market Association, GLONASS/GNSS Forum Association, and ASTRA Strategic Outsourcing Association.

The first session discussed the outlook for the backbone market in the aftermath of COVID-19. Panelists included: Olga Makarova, Director of the Department of Internet and Channel Resources, Carrier Business Block of the Corporate Center, Mobile TeleSystems; Andrey Ermurak, Regional Director Sales Russia & CIS, CenturyLink; Sergey Yakovlev, Head of the Carrier Relations, TransTeleCom (TTK); Konstantin Kolesov, Head of Strategy and Connectivity of Data Services, Carrier Relations and Roaming Department, VimpelCom; Ilya Bulaev, Sales Manager Russia & CIS, Telia Carrier; Konstantin Marchenko, Deputy General Director, Т8; Maxim Akinin, Director International Wholesales, Rostelecom, and Alexander Kotov, Solution Consultant, Vodafone Russia.

Panelists pointed out at changes in traffic consumption, geography, and increased share of international traffic. The opinion that traffic is expected to remain on the same high level in the aftermath of lockdown, when all the restrictions would be lifted, was pretty much unanimous.

Konstantin Marchenko, T8’s Deputy General Director commented that the society has demonstrated a high level of readiness for digitalization and “traffic will keep growing, as companies develop new business models for themselves”.  

Session 2 entitled “Evolution of transport network and preparation for large-scale 5G rollout” and moderated by Georgiy Nikolskiy, Partner at Capstone Capital, was kicked off by a report from a demonstration zone on T8’s high-speed DWDM systems for datacenter interconnect offered by the company’s Chief Technical Expert Dmitry Pelnikevich, and express reports from Vyacheslav Pushin, CTO of Light Density, on state-of-the-art DWDM ADVA Optical Networking solutions for datacenters and backbone telecommunication networks, and Evgeny Bugakov, Senior Systems Engineer from Juniper Networks, who spoke about high availability and quality assurance of services in the 5G networks.   

The discussion that followed was joined by Mikhail Prusakov, Head of Operation, Planning and Development of the Transport Network, Moscow Region, Tele2, and Andrey Naumenko, Rostelecom’s Director of the Department for Development and Operation of Infrastructure services.

Panelists discussed on how to ensure stable performance of telecommunication infrastructure amid lockdown; changes in topology of backbone infrastructure in view of the new strategies for 5G networks deployment; specifics of connecting 5G base stations to backbone networks; and the measures undertaken by operators to safe-guard their equipment from vandalism.

Speakers expressed readiness to different scenarios of 5G infrastructure construction; however, at this point there is not enough certainty and hard facts so that they could start designing their equipment.

The conference concluded with the session entitled «Modernization of optic fiber networks: Dramatic changes in the aftermath of the pandemic”. It kicked off with express reports from Konstantin Lukin,  CEO of SUPERTEL, on the increasing role of Digital Sovereignty amid new challenges, brought forward by the COVID-19, and ways to boost backbone network’s capacity manifold, Andrey Nikolaev, CEO of Optic Fiber Systems, on the current issues faced by the Russian optic fiber industry, and Ilya Gudenko, TTK’s Head of Marketing and Sales Support Department, who spoke about optimization of TTK’s IP network infrastructure.

The final session also featured Przemysław Gongala, International Sales Director at HAWE Telekom. Experts discussed the need for upgrade of optic-fiber infrastructure, which has been in use for more than 20 years: how to replace 400 sq. km. of cable in Russia; how the updated National Program “Digital Economy” and the Federal Project “Information Infrastructure” can help with the implementation of infrastructure projects, which were postponed as a result of the pandemic or became commercially unviable; and new backbone routes: the outlook for Europe-Asia traffic in the aftermath of the pandemic and whether the timelines of all projects would be altered.

We are grateful to all our partners, speakers and viewers for your participation!

You can buy conference materials (video and speakers’ presentations) on our web -
https://www.comnews-conferences.ru/ru/conference/tndigital2020/registration

We are looking forward to welcome you at our other online events!