As the biggest operator of telecommunications and the basic provider of up-to-date telecommunication services in the Northwestern Federal District, OJSC North-West Telecom does much to develop and upgrade its telephone network. As of 1st October 2006 the total installed capacity of OJSC N.W.Telecom's network amounted to 4.7 million numbers. The percentage of the operating number capacity of the Company is 94%. Digitalization of the installed telephone capacity has grown to 56% (as of 1st October 2005 the corresponding figure was 49.7%, and as of 1st January 2006 it was 53.8%), while the digitalization level of the city telephone network is 59%.   In the biggest cities of the North-West digitalization has already reached 100%, which makes it possible, besides providing high quality communication, to connect subscribers to the services of broadband access to the Internet and to provide additional services, such as notification on new calls, temporary prohibition of outgoing communication by password, call forwarding, teleconferencing, abbreviated-number dialing and many other services.

The high rate of introducing a new number capacity has resulted in a considerable reduction of the queue for telephone installation in all regions of the North-West.   The number of applications for telephone installation filed with OJSC N.W.Telecom as of 01.10.06 amounted to 73,200, taking into account new applications that have been constantly received (as of the same date of the year 2005 this figure was 139,700 applications, and as of 01.01.06 it was 109,300). North-West Telecom mainly stakes on increasing the share of the services , the rates for which are not regulated by the government, in the portfolio of the client . As of 01.10.2006 the share of revenues from promising services in the proceeds amounted to   8.4%, while as of 01.01.2006 it was 5.7%, and by late 2008 it is expected to be increased to 12%.

One of the key projects of N.W.Telecom in 2006 is the provision of the services of broadband access to the Internet under the Avantgard trademark . õDSL equipment with a capacity over 95,800 lines has been installed at telephone exchanges of OJSC N.W.Telecom in all branches of the Company, and 61 ,100 of them (37%) have been put into operation .   As of 1st October 2006 the number of dedicated Internet access users (including those using the ADSL technology) was more than 60,000, which is 10 times higher than the same figure as of 1st October 2005. The growth of ADSL users for the 3rd quarter of 2006 (from 01.07.06 till 01.10.06) was about 30,000.

According to   Oleg Popov, Deputy General Manager - Commercial Manager of OJSC N.W.Telecom, "for 9 months of 2006 OJSC N.W.Telecom 's share of the broadband access services market in the Northwestern Federal District has grown from less than 1% to 35%, including the today's 26% share of the St. Petersburg market. Thus, the result that our competitors have been achieving for 8 years has been achieved by us for just 8 months."  

All in all, in 2006 OJSC N.W.Telecom is planning to provide ADSL Internet access to over 70,000 subscribers, including 50,000 in St. Petersburg.    To promote the ADSL Internet access service, North-West Telecom has developed and presented to consumers a new trademark , Avangard (<Àâàíãàðä>).