On 1st February 2007 new rates for local telephone communication were introduced  throughout Russia, including the Northwestern Federal District.   OJSC N.W.Telecom has offered 5 rate plans as options to be chosen by its subscribers: "limitless", "time-based", and three "combined" rate plans (see press releases of 15.11.2006 and of 28.11.2006).

To implement the Law "On Communication" and to provide subscribers with the right of choosing the system of payment for local communication services, OJSC North-West Telecom has made appropriate engineering, organizational and informational arrangements.

For the recent years, North-West Telecom has done very much to upgrade the communication networks and to provide telephone exchanges with the time-billing function, as a result of which 825 telephone exchanges with the total installed capacity of 4.3 million lines have been covered with the time-based billing system by 1st February 2007.  Time-based billing has been introduced in all regional centers and in 276 towns. The total number of the subscribers that have been switched to the new tariffing system exceeds 4 million.  (92% of the subscriber base). 

As of 22nd March 2007, as a result of the information and explanation campaign that was launched in the period from September 2006 till February 2007, in the Northwestern Federal District on the whole:

- 50% of individual subscribers (1.76 million) and 66.7% of corporate subscribers (374,000) had chosen the "limitless" rate plan*,

- 24.3% of individual subscribers (853,000) and 22% of corporate subscribers (123,600) had chosen the "time-based" billing rate plan,

- 25.6% of individual subscribers (almost 900,000) and 11.3% of corporate subscribers (63,500)  had chosen the "combined" rate plan.

In St. Petersburg:

- 69.6% of individual subscribers (1.19 million) had chosen the subscriber fee billing system  ("limitless") rate plan, and 58,800 of them are users of the Avangard service (96% of the total number of users of the Avangard service), and 61,200 are residents of communal flats (98% of the total number of residents of communal flats); besides, this plan had been chosen by 78.6% corporate subscribers (208,400);  

- 16.1% of individual subscribers (275,100) and 14.4% of corporate subscribers (38,500) will pay for local communication services at the time-based rate;

- 14.2% of individual subscribers (242,600) and 7% of corporate subscribers (18,500) had chosen the "combined" rates.

According to Oleg Popov, sales manager of OJSC N.W.Telecom: "In general, subscribers have chosen rate plans as has been forecasted and expected.  However, the most important result of our information and explanation campaign is that the subscribers could deliberately choose the rate plans.  This is proven by the fact that the percentage of subscribers who want to change the selected rate plan is very low and the penetration degree of rate plans with quite complicated calculations is rather high."

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* information for corporate subscribers is given by the number of telephone sets.