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Kremen'" |
Urban token payphone is supplied with disc dialer, vandal-protected body and impulse dialing |
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Russian
Telephones
- this section contributed by Anton My
name is Anton. I'm telephone hobbyist living in Russia. In the
first picture you can see an old AMT payphone, 1960.
Instructions at the top: "Insert a coin. Take the receiver.
Wait for dial tone. Dial a number." Instructions below:
"For emergency call services without coin dial: fire
- 01, police - 02, ambulance - 03". In the second picture
is a Moscow payphone which had been used in the 1930s.
Next
picture is a model of 1970's, AMT-69. It was most widespread
payphone in 70's-80's. You can find that phones yet in
some province places and rural areas. This
picture is with opened front door. Note the card with electric
circuit schematics at inside part of the door.
Unfortunately I
didn't find the picture of normal closed payphone.
Next
picture is most widespread modern payphone TMGS. It uses
smart-cards for payment. Also in some places are other types of
smart-card payphones, some of them are imported (GNT from Germany,
URMET from Italy).
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Payphone
Market in St. Petersburg
Courtesy: M.
Chernobrovkina, US Commercial Service, Amer. Consulate Gen., St.
Ptrsbrg. INTERNATIONAL
COPYRIGHT, U.S. & FOREIGN COMMERCIAL SERVICE AND THE U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 1999. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED OUTSIDE OF THE
UNITED STATES. 1.
SUMMARY. The St.Petersburg payphone market has been given a second
birth. In 1995-97 the number of payphones decreased
substantially. However, from the middle of 1998 their numbers
started to grow and continued growth is predicted. End
Summary. 2. In the
early 90s, nine companies shared the St.Petersburg and Leningrad
region payphone market. Those were: Petersburg Telephone
Network (PTN), St.Petersburg Payphones (SP), Lensvyaz, St.Petersburg
Trunk-Line and Long-distance Communication, Peterstar, BCL,
Teleport-St.Petersburg, Comincom, and Lenfincom. They operated
two major types of payphones, token and card. In 1995-96, due
to the low profitability of payphones, Petersburg Telephone Network,
Peterstar, Teleport-St.Petersburg, and Lenfincom left the payphone
market. Comincom reduced its number of payphones from 20 to 5,
which were located in major business centers. 3. New
developments in payphone services started in 1998 and will continue
through 1999. The two factors that influenced it are: 1) The
license given by Goscomsvyaz to telecom operators obliges them to
install a certain number of payphones, constituting not less then
0.5 percent of their total line capacity. This makes the
installation of payphones obligatory for telecommunication
companies. 2) Operators
understood that payphones might be profitable when a quality model
is installed in a strategic location and uses a convenient means of
payment. 4.
Currently, six payphone companies are present in the St.Petersburg
market. Below is a description of each of them with the number
of payphones operated by the company. 5.
Baltic Communications Limited (BCL) The company was
founded in 1991 by "Krasnaya Zarya", Lensovet, Cable &
Wireless (Great Britain), and San Francisco Moscow Teleport Inc.
(U.S.A.). In 1996, PLD Telecom (U.S.) bought 100 percent of
BCL's shares. The company employees 97 people and provides
services to 500 clients. BCL installed its
first payphone in August 1993. Now it operates 150 payphones
manufactured by the British company GPT. The cost of each
payphone is $2,000. These payphones accept American Express,
Visa, Eurocard-MasterCard, Diner's Club, and JCB. Verification
of cards is managed by the Russian company United Cards Service.
Additionally, BCL manufactures its own payphone cards with $5.00,
$10, and $20 limits. The payphones are
switched directly to the company's international telephone station
and are installed in heavy traffic places, like airports, hotels,
restaurants, nightclubs and other areas often frequented by
foreigners. By the middle of 1999, the company is planning to
replace existing payphones with Schlumberger phones that accept
chip-cards and credit cards. The reasons for replacement are:
1) Y2K problem 2) Receiving complete service from the manufacturer (GPT
does not have an office in Russia, while Schlumberger is very active
in the market). 6.
Comincom The company was
founded in 1990 in Moscow by Orbita Bank, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, and the Center of Data Transmitting Systems at the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. It possesses its own international dialing
codes (502), (504), and (506). Comincom is the co-founder of
several joint ventures in Russia. Several years ago the
company had 20 international payphones in St.Petersburg, which
accepted Belgacom cards (Belgian telecommunication operator).
In 1998, Comincom reduced its number of payphones to 5.
However, in 1999 the St.Petersburg office of Comincom plans to
increase the number of its payphones by adding 10 payphones from
Belgacom. Their plan envisages not just installation and
maintenance of the payphone, but the creation of a small customer
center, where the client will be able to buy a payphone card and
send a fax or e-mail. These centers will be established in the
largest business centers and in the St.Petersburg Seaport. 7.
Lensvyaz Lensvyaz was founded
in 1926 and before 1994 was a 100 percent state-owned enterprise.
In 1994, it was transformed into Lensvyaz, JSC. The
shareholders of Lensvyaz are: Svyazinvest, Zolotoy Standart Bank,
and Branswik Warburg Nominees. Lensvyaz is the major public
network operator in Leningrad oblast. It provides local,
international, and Internet services, as well as TV and radio
broadcasting. Lensvyaz operates
1,967 token payphones for local communications, 413 international
payphones and 170 universal card phones (150 payphones manufactured
by Urmet (Italy) and 20 manufactured in Russia). The cost of
each Urmet payphone is $1,500. The payback period for these
payphones was only 1-2 months. 8.
Metrocom Metrocom was founded
in 1992 by St.Petersburg Metropoliten, the subway operator in
St.Petersburg, and Andrew Corp., a U.S. manufacturer of
telecommunication equipment. Metrocom is the operator of the
only optic fiber SDH telecommunication network. This network
was spread over 105 kilometers of St.Petersburg subway system.
Metrocom received a license from Goscomsvyaz for the installation of
500 payphones in St.Petersburg and the Leningrad region. The
company is planning to install 300 card phones by Urmet (Italy) for
local and international calls and 130 token phones by Temsa (South
Africa) for local calls. The Temsa payphones are very popular
among St.Petersburgers, since they provide change. Urmet
payphones are easy to adopt to accept any chip or credit card. 9.
St.Petersburg Payphones, JSC (SPP) St.Petersburg
Payphones, JSC (SPP) was founded in 1994 by Petersburg Telephone
Network, St.Petersburg Trunk-Line and Long-distance Communication,
Taksophon Partnership, Complus Holding S.A.(Luxemburg), Great
Northern Telegraph Company and Monetel Nordic (Denmark). The
shares changed hands several times and currently, they belong to
Telecominvest JSC, Great Northern Telegraph Company, and Ascom
Nordic A/S (Denmark). St.Petersburg
Payphones, JSC is the largest card payphone operator in Russia.
It has 1,800 universal payphones accepting chip cards for local and
long distance calls, which were manufactured by Ascom Nordic.
The cost of each payphone is $1,500. In some places the
company installs payphones where the services are free for the
end-user. Those are mainly hospitals and state agencies that
just pay a monthly fee for payphones. In 1996 SPP started
installing payphones all over the Northwest region. Currently,
Ascom Nordic payphones work in Petrozavodsk, Murmansk, Kaliningrad,
Pskov, Novgorod, and Cherepovets. The payphones themselves
belong to local telecom companies, which bought them from Ascom
Nordic directly, but they are operated by SPP. The cards are
purchased from SPP and are valid in all of the above mentioned
cities. The major card suppliers are: Schlumberger and Gemplus
(France) and a Russian subsidiary of Giesecke & Devrient
(Germany) in Perm. In 1997 St.Petersburg Payphones JSC signed
a contract with Orga Kartensysteme Gmbh for a supply of 250,000
payphone cards. 10.
St.Petersburg Trunk-Line and Long-distance Communication, JSC. St.Petersburg Trunk
Line and Long-distance Communication (SPTL LdC) is the largest
long-distance service operator in St.Petersburg. It was founded in
1993 and currently its major shareholders are: Svyazinvest,
Brunsweek Warburg Nominees, and Post Land Enterprises Ltd. The company's
payphone network includes 715 subway token payphones manufactured in
Russia. However, during the last few years the volume of
traffic through them has substantially decreased due to the
increased number of card payphones operated by St.Petersburg
Payphones, JSC. In 1998 SPTL LdC, JSC decided to modernize its
payphone network. The plan calls for the installation of coin
operated payphones. After a search that was conducted by the
company's specialist, SPTL LdC, JSC chose payphones manufactured by
Landys & Gyr Communications (Switzerland). These payphones
appealed to SPTL LdC, JSC by their compact size and inexpensive
price (about $ 1,000). However, the economic crises of August
1999 postponed the company's plans for modernization. Due to
the ruble default, the ruble price for imported payphones increased
by 4 times. Additionally, the company is afraid that if the
devaluation of the ruble continues, the current coins will not be
enough to pay for a call. 11. There are
other companies that are planning to install payphones. Among
them are Sovintel, which still does not know if it wants to provide
payphone services by itself or to hire a separate company that will
operate payphones in St.Petersburg. Global One is also
considering the possibility of installing its payphones in
St.Petersburg. 12. The variety
of telephone networks creates problems for end-users, which need to
buy cards for several payphone operators. In order to solve this
problem, operators are trying to establish a Russia-wide
cross-billing of payphone cards. The first step was
made by St.Petersburg Payphones, JSC (SPP), who organized the
cross-billing of payphone cards between several Northwest cities (St.Petersburg,
Petrozavodsk, Murmansk, Kaliningrad, Novgorod, Pskov, and
Cherepovets). Later SPP tried to organize cross-billing of
payphone cards between SPP cards and Lensvyaz. However, they
postponed their plans due to the economic crises. Nevertheless, SPP
managed to agree with BCL about cross-billing of payphone cards.
The new Schlumberger payphones will accept the payphone cards issued
by SPP and Ascom Nordic phones operated by SPP will accept BCL
cards. Currently, 216,000
payphones are located in Russia and SPP is trying to play the
leading part in organizing cross-billing of payphone cards all over
Russia. Moscow-based company Incom is also trying to implement
the same thing. Incom has developed a program called "The
United Payphones Map of Russia". According to this
program, Incom will lease payphones purchased from U.S. and Canadian
firms and give them out to local operators for free. The
operators install the payphones and give a certain share of their
profit to Incom. 12.
Contact information 1. Baltic
Communications Limited (BCL) 4, Konnogvardeysky
Bulvar St.Petersburg, Russia tel: 7(812) 315-0073 fax: 7(812) 314-8660 e-mail: bcl@bcltele.com http://www.bcltele.com Contact: David
Witfort, General Director 2. Comincom 5, Zvenigorodskaya
str., 191119 St.Petersburg, Russia tel: 7(812) 164-1118 fax: 7(812) 276-1418 e-mail: comincom@mail.dux.ru http://www.comincom.ru Contact:Andrey
Karelsky 3. Lensvyaz 61, Bolshaya Morskaya St.Petersburg, Russia tel: 7(812) 311-8478 fax: 7(812) 315-4850 e-mail: lensvyaz@mail.wplus.net Contact: Alexander
Sysoev, General Director 4. Metrocom St.Petersburg, Russia tel: 7(812) 118-3122 fax: 7(812) 118-3123 e-mail: sales@metrocom.ru http://www.metrocom.ru Contact: Ravil
Khalikov, General Director 5. St.Petersburg
Payphones, JSC St.Petersburg, Russia tel: 7(812) 554-0503 fax: 7(812) 554-0333 e-mail: office@spt.ru http://www.spt.ru Contact:Anatoly
Afanasyev, General Director 6. St.Petersburg
Trunk-line and Long-distance Communications, JSC 3-5 Bolshaya Morskaya St.Petersburg, Russia tel: 7(812) 311-4863 fax: 7(812) 315-1701 e-mail: incom@spbnit.ru http://www.spbnit.ru Contact:Nikolay
Pevtsov, General Director
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