Internet Info 1994 March/Internet Info CD-ROM (Walnut Creek) (March 1994).iso/inet/isoc/isoc_news/issue1-2/n-1-2-012.70.3a

Text File | 1993-03-01 | 5KB | 114 lines

012.70.3 GlasNet

Anatoly Voronov
<[e-mail]>

In the last three months Glasnet, a new computer network in
Moscow under the sponsorship of the IGC (Institute for Global
Communications, San Francisco, USA), has achieved several
successful results.   GlasNet has been admitted as a member of
the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), composed of
PeaceNet, Econet (USA), GreenNet (UK), Web (Canada), Pegasus
(Australia), Alternex (Brazil), NordNet (Sweden), Comlink
(Germany), Nicarao (Nicaragua), and Chasque (Uruguay).

GlasNet stood firmly during the Coup in August, 1991.  This
infuriated the Soviet bureaucrats who supported tacitly Mr.
Yanaev & Co.  (now on sine die vacations living as Yeltsin's
guests in the 0-star Hotel "Matrosskaya Tishina Jail" run by KGB,
now Federal Security Agency of Russia).  The GlasNet stance
infuriated certain "champions of friendship and international co-
operation in the humanitarian field".  Academician Yevgeni
Velikhov fired Anatoly Voronov, then GlasNet Executive Director,
citing activities "not in keeping with" his position.

Voronov wrote a letter to International Herald Tribune (The Price
of Resistance, IHT,  October 1991, don't remember the exact
date).  Then GlasNet received its own juridical identity, and has
now nothing to do with the so-called "International Foundation"
controlled by Mr.  Velikhov and Metropolitan Pitirim, top Russian
Orthodox Church official, denounced recently by the Argumenti i
Fakty weekly as KGB's secret agent, alias "Abbat".

GlasNet improved its technical basis, installing its host
machines in the telephone exchange close to the Metro Krasnie
Vorota in downtown Moscow.  In May GlasNet will have the X.25
access facility of the Sovpak network (DNIC 2503).  GlasNet
currently has more that 300 users, with the growth rate of 50 per
month.

GlasNet now offers email, conferencing, fax and telex facilities
at the rates 20-25% lower than any other network which charges
its users in rubles.  The GlasMail service, consisting in sending
email messages to GlasNet host in Moscow and then relaying it as
an ordinary letter, FAX or Telegram, is expanding.  This way the
Westerners can send their messages to the Russian citizens who do
not have access to the modern email technology.

Considerable discounts (up to 300%) are given to the pro bono
users whose activities comply with the APC and GlasNet Charter
(peace, ecology, social activities, NGOs, human contacts).
GlasNet is currently the only telecommunications facility which
individual users can afford in Russia.

Now GlasNet is preparing to raise its voice against the "Modem
Hunt" planned by the Russian Ministry of Telecommunications: a
heavy tax imposed on the modem and fax users (see sidebar)



[Sidebar]
Spring Modem Hunt in Moscow: Happy Fools' Day, Gentlemen!
COMMERSANT Weekly, No.  13, March 23-30 1992, p.14

Translation of article by Kirill Maslentsin published by the
Moscow Weekly Commersant.

===start of text===

Starting from April 1st, the Commercial Service of the Moscow
City Telephone Network (Proizvodstvennoe Ob'edinenie MGTS) will
detect the unregistered modems.  The experts doubt that this
action, objectively necessary, is manageable to be carried out
quickly, because the Commercial Service of the MGTS finds itself
yet in the organizational stage.

According to Alexander Shambazov, Deputy Director of the PO MGTS,
approximately 100.000 modems are currently in use in Moscow.
Shambazov was unable to say how many of them had been registered.
Up-to-date, every Telephone Service node in Moscow used to
register the modems separately (usually, at owner's request), and
MGTS does not have the consolidated information.

The Commercial Service, created recently by the MGTS, will
compile the general  database on modem owners.  This department
will detect the "illegal" modems whose owners do not pay for the
use of these devices.

In Mr.  Shambazov's opinion, companies which run the phone
communications networks, or sell the information contained in
their databases, and the companies who manufacture and sell the
modems, will help to detect the "illegal" modems.  The MGTS will
request these companies to submit their user lists.  It is not
excluded that MGTS will obtain the required information, because
all the companies implied are interested to come to terms with
the Telco.  Shambazov informed that MGTS has the modem detection
equipment.

The experts consider that the "modem hunt", on its early stage,
won't be very efficient, because the MGTS Commercial Service is
still being organized, and its structure is weak.  Nevertheless,
one may expect that the frightened users of the "illegal devices"
will "plead guilty" massively.

According to the information obtained, the offenders won't be
fined.  They'll simply be urged to conclude a contract (if the
modem is certified).  The usage fee will be 1296 R/year for the
self-financed companies, and 324 R/year for the organizations
financed by the State budget.  But if a company uses a modem for
commercial purposes (for example, selling the information), will
have to pay 50.000 rubles per year.  Nothing was said with regard
to the modems owned by the individuals.

===end of text===