Telecommunications

Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of

technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems
 Telecommunication is the exchange of signs, signals, messages, words,
writings, images and sounds or information of any nature
by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems.
Transmitter
- takes information and
converts it to a signal

Transmission medium, also

called the physical channel
- carries the signal

Telecommunication over fixed lines is called A receiver

point-to-point communication because it is between one - takes the signal from the
transmitter and one receiver channel and converts it back
into usable information for the
Telecommunication through radio broadcasts is called recipient
broadcast communication because it is between one powerful
transmitter and numerous low-power but sensitive radio A telecommunications network is a collection of
receivers transmitters, receivers, and
communications channels that send messages
to one another
Telecom industry services Telecom industry operators
• Telephone • Universal services operator
• Radio and television • Satellite services operator
• Internet • Mobile services operator
• Fixed lines operator
• Mobile virtual network operator
• Internet services operator

• Licenses are given by Roskomnadzor for 5

years
Telephone
• Fixed lines
• Analog signals
• electrical signals
Optical fiber
• the speaker's voice directly determines the signal's voltage
• Optical fiber
• digital signals
• digitized voice data can travel side-by-side with data from the Internet and can be perfectly
reproduced in long-distance communication
• offer a drastic increase in data capacity

• Mobile
• ! Competition between data exchange protocols
• Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
• Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
Radio and television
• Broadcasting
• the distribution of audio or video content to a
dispersed audience via any electronic mass
communications medium, but typically one
using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio
waves), in a one-to-many model
• the central high-powered broadcast tower transmits a high-
frequency electromagnetic wave to numerous low-powered
receivers
• Analog vs. digital broadcasts • competing analog broadcast
• competing digital broadcast standards that standards:
are likely to be adopted worldwide: • PAL (Phase Alternating Line) – Germany
• ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) – American • NTSC ( National Television System
Standards Committee) – USA
• DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) – European Standards • SECAM (séquentiel couleur à mémoire) -
• ISDB (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting) – Japanese France
Standard
• DTMB (Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast) – Chinese
Standard
 ARPANET, 1974

Internet
• 1969: ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects
Agency Network)
• was established by the Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA) of the United States
Department of Defense
• 1984: NSFNet
• substituted ARPANET due to greater traffic
capacity
Optical fiber lines, 2021
• 1991: World Wide Web
• Independent networks connected to NSFNet
• No single management or regulator!
• Open technical standards for Internet networks
• 2011: “Internet access is the basic human right”
(UN)
• 2017: 48% of people have Internet access (UN)
 Internet: how it works
• The Internet is a collection of separate and distinct networks referred to as autonomous systems, each
one operating under a common framework of globally unique IP (Internet Protocol) addressing and
global BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) routing

• 3 ways of interaction between distinct networks:

• Transit (or pay) – The network operator pays money (or settlement) to another network for Internet access
(or transit)
• Peer (or swap) – Two networks exchange traffic between their users freely, and for mutual benefit
• Customer (or ''sell'') – A customer of one network pays another network money to be provided with Internet access
• Peering wars!
• As the Internet is based on the principle of global reachability, any Internet connected network must by
definition use one of above-mentioned ways of interconnection

• Public peering (network access points (NAPs) vs. private peering

• Public peering Internet exchange points in Russia: Krasnoyarsk (3), Omsk, Vladivostok, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don
(2), Moscow (7), St.Petersburg (5), Samara, Ulyanovsk, Yaroslavl, Chelyabinsk (stalled in 2004)
• Ex.: http://omsk-ix.ru/
Telecom in Russia
Telecommunications in Russia - history
• 1992 – Rostelecom
• 20 point-to-point communication companies (regional and international fixed lines)
• 1994 – becomes a part of Svyazinvest/Связьинвест holding
• 2006 – Rostelecom becomes long-distance Internet-provider
• 2009 – www.gosuslugi.ru
• 2009 – acquisition of regional telecom companies (incl. North-West Telecom/Северо-Западный Телеком)
• 2011 – Rostelecom merged Svyazinvest
• 2013 – Svyazinvest excluded from the official list of existing companies
• 2012- acquisition of SkyLink (Tele-2)
• 2014 – joint venture with Tele-2
• 2014 – provision of ‘universal telecom services’
• 2018 – the only provider of telecom services to the state and municipal healthcare organisations
• 2019 – 45.04% - Russian federation, 3.96% - Vneshekonombank, 12.01% - Mobitel (Rostelecom’s
subsidiary)
Universal services
Price discrimination in cable telephone services

Telecom in Russia
Internet
in Russia
• Internet backbones:
• International backbone “Moscow-St.Petersburg-Helsinki-Stockholm”
• Interregional backbones
• Internet operators (ranked by length of network): Public peering Internet exchange
points:
• Rostelecom (500 th.km)
• Krasnoyarsk (3)
• MTS (243 th.km)
• Omsk
• Vympelcom (183 th.km) • Vladivostok
• Megafon (136 th.km) • Krasnodar
• Transtelecom (78 th.km) • Rostov-on-Don (2)
• RetnNet (42 th.km) • Moscow (7)
• Start Telecom (16 th.km) • St.Petersburg (5)
• Zummer (13,8 th.km) • Samara
• Raskom (17 th.km) • Ulyanovsk
• TeliaSonera (2 th.km) • Yaroslavl
• Quantum (1,5 th.km)
Telecom networks in Russia
• Public telecom network
• Dedicated (выделенные) telecom networks
• Technological telecom networks, connected to public telecom networks
• Specialized telecom networks
 Mobile phones operators, Russia, 2019
Telecom services’ impact:
• Microeconomic level
• helps to create competitive advantages for market players

• Macroeconomic level
• a causal link between good telecommunication infrastructure and economic growth
• digital divide

• Social impact
• social networking sites

Telecom services’ challenges:

• Human rights Cable TV operators, Russia, 2019
• Big data analysis
• Yarovaya’s Act (пакет Яровой)
• Competition and universal service
• Oligopoly
• Differentiated product (vertical differentiation)
• Loyal consumers with high switching costs
• Meets consumers’ needs
• Network effect
• the demand for company’s services depends on the amount of company’s customers

• Independent regulator
Competition in telecom
• What are the borders of telecom markets?
• Who determines market structure in Telecom markets?

• Competitive games
• Price competition
• Consumer prices
• Roaming
• Why roaming cancellation didn’t lead to significant increase in price?
• Peering wars
• voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic
between the users of each network
• "bill-and-keep“ - neither party pays the other in association with the exchange of traffic; instead, each derives
and retains revenue from its own customers.
• Product differentiation