Svyazinvest's efforts will now be concentrated above all on the creation of multi-service communications networks, enabling the provision of cable television services, telephone communications, and Internet access.
According to Tatyana Tolmacheva, an analyst at IKS Consulting, Svyazinvest presently accounts for 20 percent of the additional communications services market. Russia's entire Internet & IP-telephonia market was estimated at $740 million in 2004, and proceeds from cable television came to an additional $150 million, she reports.
Olga Zhilinskaya, an analyst with the Renaissance Capital investment group, predicts that if the government goes ahead with its privatization plan, Svyazinvest's new owner will be able to pay even more attention to the development of additional services.
Svyazinvest provides cable TV services for 597,000 subscribers in 24 regions across Russia. It runs seven interregional communications companies and a distance-call operator, Telecom. The overall capitalization of its subsidiaries amounts to some 8 billion dollars.
The government is planning to sell off a 75 percent stake in Svyazinvest.
