Kaluga, Russia, January 14, 2011. CenterTelecom OJSC reports that Vaagn Martirosyan, the company's General Director, on behalf of its company has signed a trilateral cooperation agreement with Anatoly Artamonov, Governor of Kaluga Region, and Alexey Naschekin, Vice President responsible for Federal Programs' implementation, Rostelecom OJSC. The signed agreement provides a formation of the regional segment of the electronic government (e-government).

In accordance with the signed agreement the parties are to develop interactions and cooperation aimed at building of the newest information and telecommunications infrastructure in Kaluga region. This infrastructure is necessary for implementation of targeted federal programs, regional IT projects, for development of the unified information space for formation of information community in the region, and building of an infrastructure for development of the regional e-government sub-systems. The agreement also provides formation of a pilot zone in Kaluga region in order to develop the e-government's infrastructure and to switch of the governmental and municipal services to electronic format.

For these purposes the parties have set a number of tasks including the following:

- use of information and communications technologies and telecommunications infrastructure's reserves in the sphere of education, science, culture, health care, safety and social system

- formation of complex information systems allowing to call emergency services through unified telephone number 112 (Tele-Medical Network, Safe City)

- improvement of the quality of social call centers' operations in Kaluga region (helpline, crisis counseling center)

- building of infrastructure and provision of an access to electronic archives of the cultural organizations operating in the region

- development of complex telecommunications infrastructure in the Kaluga region's clusters

The parties plan to implement the program on basis of the technological platform of CenterTelecom's Kaluga branch.

A special solution developed by Rostelecom is to be used by the parties to form the e-government's regional infrastructure and for switch of governmental and municipal services to electronic format. The solution corresponds with a technological policy accepted for formation of the unified e-government's regional infrastructure and with all information security and personal data protection requirements. The Rostelecom's solution includes full range of services and technologies; it allows to provide regional and municipal services in electronic format promptly avoiding significant investments.

Rostelecom already invested a considerable amount of funds in development of this solution, in a purchase of the necessary equipment and software, in software installation, and in integration with the federal segment of e-government. Now Rostelecom proposes Russian regions to use the solution analogous to a Software as a Service (SAAS) model.