RETN`S PAN-EUROPEAN RING NETWORK

Moscow, February 8, 2013

The RETN group of companies has commissioned its pan-European data transmission ring network, with DWDM technology. This is the first time RETN has connected the European part of Russia with the main traffic exchange points of Europe with two diverse routes, across Scandinavia and across the Ukraine. Having spent about 40 Million Euro over four years, RETN has built not only the most powerful cross-border data transmission infrastructure in Russia, but also one of the longest and highest capacity DWDM rings in Europe.

The RETN optical network follows a route connecting: Moscow – Saint-Petersburg – Helsinki – Stockholm – Copenhagen – Hamburg – Amsterdam – Frankfurt – Munich – Vienna –Bratislava – Budapest – Uzhgorod – Lvov – Kiev – Kharkov – Belgorod – Voronezh – Lipetsk – Tula – Moscow with a branch to London. The RETN DWDM optical network enables transmission of large volumes of data traffic today and is scalable to support the constant increase of data traffic. The total length of the RETN optical network includes 4,000 km in Russia and 8,000 km in the countries of Northern, Eastern, Central and Western Europe.

The total capacity of the RETN network, which has become the leading link for Russian and world telecommunications networks, between Russia and Europe is 1200 Gbps in the current configuration including two independent routes of 400 Gbps each across Finland and one route of 400 Gbps across the Ukraine. The network is built on the basis of DWDM equipment produced by Infinera (USA) and consists of 126 hubs. The same equipment is used for the optical networks of many leading international core network operators. In Russia and the Ukraine, RETN was the first to certify and deploy Infinera’s high-performance equipment for DWDM networks.

The RETN network is a core infrastructure, providing transit of Internet traffic for many Russian and international leaders of the Internet industry. More than 1200 line operators and telehouses of the USA, Europe and the CIS are connected to the network. The IP network of RETN is among the leading networks of the world in terms of connectivity and in terms of the number of points of traffic exchange. The RETN network has become the most important cross-border thoroughfare of  Russian Internet. Currently about 15% of Russian Internet traffic passes through the RETN network.

The CEO of  RETN, Dmitry Samarin, stated: “Termination of the construction of our pan-European DWDM ring is an important, though intermediate, stage of RETN’s development. The next plans include the construction of a second ring to backup the network’s separate parts. Secondly, it is necessary to expand continuously the geography and reach of the network, which means that further DWDM branches will be constructed in Russia, the Ukraine and Europe. Thirdly, the RETN backbone infrastructure will be constantly upgraded for increase of its throughput capacity. We suppose that in the near future the current rate of traffic growth on our network of more than 300% annually will continue”.

About RETN

The RETN telecommunications data transmission network was founded in 2002. The network’s development and operation are carried out by the group of companies with the following geographical distribution of liabilities: JSC “RetnNet” in Russia, TOV “Retn” in Ukraine and RETN Ltd. In Europe, USA and Asia. The headquarters and control centre of the network are situated in Moscow.