History
The ELTEL telecommunications company was established in 2000 and started its activity with the project of HostWay.ru, a project for creation of a node of high-quality hosting.
The idea of the project appeared by the end of 1999, and it was implemented in cooperation with the Rostelecom and RT-Line companies. The basic direction of activity of the new company was granting services of hosting to commercial organisations with the need for publication, processing and storage of great volumes of data by means of the Internet.
Commercial operation of the HostWay.ru data centre started in January 2001, and within a short time it joined the number of the best hosting-platforms in Russia. The total capacity of the used channels of the HostWay.ru data centre constituted 360 Mbit/s, the basic part of which was connected to the backbone network of the "Rostelecom" OJSC. In 2002, expansion of channel capacity up to 1000 Mbit/s was planned. The power supply system of the node included: connection to two electro-substations, diesel-generator operating in a hot mode, as well as UPS systems for 220 VAC and 60 VDC. At the beginning of 2001, assembly of the main and standby air-conditioning system was finished. The designed capacity of the HostWay.ru reached 2000 servers.
In 2001, ELTEL became the first Microsoft ASP-provider certified in Russia (Application Service Provider – provider of applications services, rendering the services of outsourcing of applications). Similar agreements were signed with the Macromedia and Oracle corporations. Within the framework of the ASP-programme, ELTEL offered clients the opportunity to take advantage of use of the necessary software without the expenses of purchase and installation of the systems.
With time, hosting operators paid attention to the quality of the ELTEL platform, the quality of the service and the connection to the Internet network. The platform started to be filled with client servers, and the traffic started to grow.
Then clients needed access to the Internet and access to their servers at a higher speed. Two decisions were made: to build the city data network and not to use copper wires for the construction of the network.
Development of the network enabled offering of such services in the market as high-speed access to the Internet and communication between offices, and since corporate clients wanted to receive all telecommunication services from one provider, a project was developed for the company’s own telephone network. The company started granting services of telephone communication in 2002. The first consumers of telephony services were the corporate clients of the company, who had already used the services of dedicated channels for access to the Internet, as well as the services of professional hosting and lease of applications in the data centre of ELTEL.
For granting services of telephone communication, a SI-2000 telephone exchange was purchased, manufactured by the IskraTel. For granting city numbers to clients in Saint-Petersburg, ELTEL acquired number capacity from the operators of Petersburg Transit Telecom and PeterStar.
By the end of 2002, for the purpose of securing the rapidly growing need for broadband access to the Internet network and reduction of the cost of access to western resources, ELTEL participated in the launch of the project of construction of a RETN backbone network, today having more than 550 direct connections to Russian and foreign operators. In 2003, within the frameworks of the project, nodes were open in Moscow, London, New York and Helsinki. In 2005, in Stockholm, Amsterdam, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir and Yaroslavl. In 2006, in Frankfurt, Ashburn, Novgorod and Tver. On the basis of these main nodes, MPLS VPN services are rendered to clients.
In 2003, ELTEL performed active construction of the city network in Petersburg.
In 2004, a Moscow branch was opened, and construction of a network in Moscow started.
In 2005, the HostWay.ru data centre was transferred from a television centre in Chapygina street to a new technical platform on Liteyny prospect. The usable area became three times as large.
In November, 2006, ELTEL entered the Petersburg market of FTTВ networks, having acquired the assets of Transkeyno company that operated in five districts of the city and served about 5000 subscribers. At present, services are rendered in ten districts of Petersburg. By the end of 2008, it is planned to serve more than 30 thousand FTTВ users.
In April 2007, ELTEL announced the putting into operation of the first in Petersburg transport circle having a bandwidth of 10 Gbit/s based on MPLS/Ethernet technology. In May, the company transferred the data centre from downtown to an industrial area in Polyustrovsky pr., having increased its production floor space and the capacity of the power supply. In the same year, ELTEL started construction of a network in the nearest suburbs. The first nodes of the data transfer network were launched in September, in Sertolovo and Sestroretsk.
In July 2007, the Moscow sector of the network was detached into a separate company, Rubicom.
In 2007, a decision was made to speed up the work on attraction of business-clients. During that year, ELTEL strengthened the sales department, which was increased threefold, and the number of new connections to network services exceeded 30 organisations per month.
In April 2008, ELTEL launched the second phase of the data center HostWay. Capacity of the data center - 65 racks designed to accommodate the client servers and network equipment. The investment amounted to EUR 3 million.
In May 2008, ELTEL has signed a contract with "Doctor Web" on the provision of services to its customers protection from spam and viruses on the basis of product Dr.Web AV-Desk.
In June of 2008 service provider Content-House and ELTEL signed an agreement on joint provision of interactive services to subscribers of video on demand.
In September 2008, ELTEL began massive provision of services to clients on your network IP-PBX - "Virtual PBX". Functions of the telephone exchange performs software on servers operator which are located in a data center that ensures uninterrupted power supply and clock technical support. The service is provided using several proven software and hardware systems.
In November 2008, ELTEL brought to market a brand 3V (Voice, Video, Virtuality), under which the moving voice, video on demand (VoD), IP-TV, video and broadband Internet access services to private subscribers. The first step in promoting a new brand was a participation in the exhibition home electronic entertainment Home Interactive Technologies, which was held at the Central Exhibition Hall "Manege".
During 2008, ELTEL conducted extensive work on network construction in Vyborgsky and Kalininsky regions of St. Petersburg, increasing their density in their sites that allows you to connect new customers in these areas in less time and at lower cost. Fiber-optic lines the company appeared in Pushkin and Kolpino. The length of the cable network ELTEL in St. Petersburg and its suburbs rose in 2008 more than 200 km and reached more than 900 km.
In April 2009, ELTEL finished the next stage of modernization of the core metro network. The project has established three router Juniper Networks MX-series and the construction of new trunk line. Backbone ELTEL became the most powerful among telecommunications companies in St. Petersburg.