ITT last year obtained a license to provide international and intercity communications. Under the license terms, each company seeking to provide long-distance communications must have its own network covering the entire territory of Russia.
The company's chief executive Konstantin Solodukhin said ITT had already started to provide long-distance communications in St. Petersburg, in Tver in European Russia, and in Moscow. The company was therefore already establishing itself as a competitor in the long-distance communications market, Solodukhin said.
ITT is expected to start providing long-distance communications across the whole of Russia from March 1. It planned to take a share of around 15% in the long-distance market, Solodukhin said.
With the emergence of new operators on the long-distance communications market, tariffs on communications services were likely to fall by 15-20%, he said.
A total of 15 companies, including Russia's leading telecoms firms such as Golden Telecom, Telecom, VimpelCom and others have received licenses to provide long-distance communications.
