Info

New Challenges

The 8th International conference Transport Networks Russia 2017 – Transport Telecommunications Network Development in Russia and CIS held on March 16-17, 2017 in Moscow was a big success.  The largest annual event dedicated to the national market of transport telecommunication networks brought together backbone transport network operators, mobile and fixed service providers, corporate and departmental network operators, the scientific community, manufacturers of infrastructure equipment, system integrators, market analysts and consultants, investment companies, and also business and industry media.

Largest Russian telecom operator Rostelecom was Partner of Transport Networks Russia 2017, leading global vendor Huawei was Platinum sponsor, TransTelecom (TTK) was Golden sponsor, Transneft Telecom was Silver sponsor, Tata Communications, IRE-Polus, ECI Telecom and Nokia were Bronze sponsors of the forum. "Т8", Coriant and Module were Session sponsors, and MSK-IX, Peering (DATAIX) and Ihome (W-IX) were Round table sponsors. The event was also powered by HAWE Telekom, SUPERTEL, DataLine, Fiber Optic Systems, GIPROSVYAZ and Brain4Net. Ekinops, PacketLight Networks LTD and Teleser showcased their solutions at the exhibition. Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Rostelecom, Huawei, TTK, RASCOM and others companies were featured at the meeting zone.

The event was endorsed by FTTH Council Europe, Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC), International Academy of Communications, non-profit organization National association of house communications and information networks (NADIKS), Association of Recruitment Consultants, Fiber Optics Association, and more than 30 industry media.

TransNet 2017 kicked off with a round table dedicated to content providers as new trendsetters in the backbone market.  Moderator Olga Makarova, Director of Internet and channel resources Department, Сarrier Business Development Unit, Corporate Center, MTS Group, posed a pivotal question: “Will we reach the point when backbone traffic will stop growing exponentially?” According to Akado’s Operating Director Mikhail Medrish, traffic volume is boosted by better quality of content, and this process will keep going. “It is time to stop charging subscribers for Internet access, instead “Internet” should be charged for access to subscribers,” emphasized Rostelecom’s Head of Products and Marketing Department Sergey Makarov. He also pointed out that his company, a federal operator, intends to roll out a network of regional data centers and is seeking regional CDN providers to collaborate with in all regions of Russia. One of the largest backbone operators in the world, Tata Communications has to reinvent its business model in view of the market focus on content and the lack of subscriber base. “In the end, the important thing is how a backbone operator runs its network. We are all about to face a new challenge – 5G networks,” commented Tata Communications Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe Marcin Raczkiewicz.

“In the upcoming years traffic will keep growing, amid the transformation and growing complexity of the telecom and IT markets,” admitted Igor Akulinin, Senior Business Consultant from Huawei. Maxim Anikin, Level 3 Sales Director in Russia and CIS added that Internet exchange points (IX) have drastically changed, becoming operators, but with no network of their own. This is a source of connectivity needed for CDN networks. According to Yandex’ Network Infrastructure Director Alexey Sokolov, IX will soon serve as data centers for backbone operators. TTK’s Head of Wholesale business Sergey Yakovlev doesn’t view IX as direct competition. “They are our competitors in the same way as Russian Railways or Aeroflot,” he explained.

The next two sessions of TransNet were focused on new technologies in transport networks and featured such speakers as: TTK’s Head of Wholesale business Sergey Yakovlev, Huawei’s Senior Manager of Optical Transport Engineering Office Alexey Zemskov, Transneft Telecom’s Head of Business Development Oleg Matyushenko, Project Manager from IRE-Polus Yaroslav Tezadov, Deputy General Director of IRE-Polus Vitaly Shub, Vodaphone Russia’s Solutions consultant Alexander Kotov, Head of OPTICs consulting engineering department at NOKIA Semen Kogan, Tata Communications’ Senior Manager for Solutions Engineering Konrad Czubak, T8’s General Director Vladimir Treshikov, ECI Telecom’s Network Architect Ivan Bykov, Deputy Director of Technical Development Department in Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS) Andrey Letnikov, Coriant’s Channel and Business Development director Mikhail Kristev, Modul’s Vyacheslav Pushin, and, finally,  SUPERTEL’s Deputy General Director and Director for Telecom Projects Konstantin Lukin.

The first day of the forum concluded with a round table entitled “Preparing global and national backbone infrastructure to 5G and IoT networks” and focused on the most topical issues around networks topology and their readiness to the requirements of 5G and IoT; new requirements for data centers and Big Data technologies; potential volume of international traffic, which can be generated by the connected devices, and some other topics. Round table panelists included: Alexander Anufrienko, Director of R&D Department at the National Center for Informatization (NCI), Virgin Connect’s Deputy General Director of Technology Vladimir Valkovich, DataLine’s Business Development Director Pavel Zavyalov, Head of Laboratory at NIIR Vadim Poskakukhin, MTS Account Manager at Ericsson Yury Tenishev, and IRE-Polus’ Deputy General Director Vitaly Shub.

The conference day concluded with cocktails, so the guests could continue networking in a more informal setting.

The second day of TransNet 2017 started with a session dedicated to new growth drivers for backbone operator business efficiency. Alexey Sechkin, Head of Content Provider Services and CDN in MegaFon, spoke about how CDN gives operators a competitive edge. Arina Kornilyeva, Corning Optical Fiber’s Regional Manager for Eastern Europe, looked into innovative fiber solutions. DataLine’s Business Development Director Pavel Zavyalov told the audience about virtualization for telecommunication companies.  CEO of Fiber Optic Systems Andrey Nikolaev showcased the advantages of Russian optic fiber. General Director of GIPROSVYAZ Alexey Malysh told the audience about the recent changes in his company. Brain4Net CTO Max Kaminsky gave an insight on SDN and orchestration as means to develop transport services.

The round table “Organization of new cross-border junction points and traffic transit across Russia” moderated by Olga Makarova from MTS attracted a lot of interest. The round table touched upon the following topics: points of traffic concentration approaching Russia’s borders, new destinations of traffic transit, optimization of foreign infrastructure employed by Russian operators, new routes of international traffic transit, transarctic transit Europe – Asia, and etc. Round table speaker list featured: Head of China Unicom (Europe) in Russia Shamil Gabitov, , HAWE Telecom’s International Sales Director Przemysław Gągała, Managing Director of LinxTelecom Ljubica Draskic, General Director of Polarnet Project Oleg Kim, MegaFon’s Head of International Carrier Business Oksana Maguliy, Account Director of Latvia State Television and Radio Centre Valery Makarov, TTK’s Head of Channel Sales to International Operators Konstantin Novikov, Beltelecom’s Deputy General Director for Technical Issues Vadim Shaybakov.

The international conference concluded with a round table on the changes in the role of IX points in the backbone market. Panelists included MSK-IX’s Commercial Director Evgeny Morozov, General Director of Peering (DATAIX) Roman Venediktov, General Director of Sea-IX Egor Drobyshev, TTK’s Head of Carrier Products and Marketing Alexey Kipchatov, and President of Ihome (W-IX) Vasily Maslovsky.

This year TransNet marked the record number of attendance – more than 400 delegates, all of whom praised the high level of event organization, interesting program, and excellent networking opportunities.