Telecommunications: Russia is enlisting foreign help, by means of joint ventures, to speed up the modernization of its telecommunications system; NMT-450 analog cellular telephone networks are operational and growing in Moscow and St. Petersburg; expanded access to international E-mail service available via Sprint network; intercity fiberoptic cable installation remains limited; the inadequacy of Russian telecommunications is a severe handicap to the economy, especially with respect to international connections; total installed telephones 24,400,000, of which in urban areas 20,900,000 and in rural areas 3,500,000; of these, total installed in homes 15,400,000; total pay phones for long distant calls 34,100; telephone density is about 164 telephones per 1,000 persons (in 1992, only 661,000 new telephones were installed compared with 855,000 in 1991 and in 1992 the number of unsatisfied applications for telephones reached 11,000,000); international traffic is handled by an inadequate system of satellites, land lines, microwave radio relay and outdated submarine cables; this traffic passes through the international gateway switch in Moscow which carries most of the international traffic for the other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States; a new Russian Raduga satellite will link Moscow and St. Petersburg with Rome from whence calls will be relayed to destinations in Europe and overseas; satellite ground stations - INTELSAT, Intersputnik, Eutelsat (Moscow), INMARSAT, Orbita; broadcast stations - 1,050 AM/FM/SW (reach 98.6% of population), 7,183 TV; receiving sets - 54,200,000 TVs, 48,800,000 radio receivers, 74,300,000 radio receivers with multiple speaker systems for program diffusion

NOTE: The information regarding Russia on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Russia Communications 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Russia Communications 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.