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Networking space
Webbization In Russia
Dmitry Latukhin
Technical University of Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk, Russia
dl@urc.ac.ru
Dynamic expansion of the Internet has affected boundless territory of Russia. Everywhere, from Moscow to the
Far East, increasing interest is noticed in telecommunications and networking services and, in particular, in
developing WWW sites. Sometimes this situation looks like mushrooms growing after a good summer rain. It
depends on a lot of different factors including geography of the country, its information infrastructure, etc.
So far there is a moment restraining the development — this is extremely limited number of high-speed
communication lines on the outside. Practically only Moscow and St.Petersburg have several links
corresponding to T1/E1 ones at present. All the rest of cities are contented with slow lines — with no more
than 19.2–28.8 kbps or 64–128 kbps via satellite channels in the best case. The explanation is in high
monopolization of this sphere of business by few state and half-private companies. But because the local market
of telecommunications is very attractive for large western companies and investors the situation is being
improved step by step. New digital lines and earth satellite stations are built though they are too expensive for
lease by as any state and educational institutions so originating firms-providers of Internet in Russia (for
example, over $ 60,000 annual payment for 64 kbps INTELSAT channel).
Professionals
What is surprising that is high qualification and wide experience of Russian network staff. These people work
under far worse conditions as compared to their foreign colleagues. Their sites have often PCs only and their
salary is not more than $200–300. The system administrators and webmasters constantly face bad quality of
leased lines and lack of any local firms supporting and developing software.
As a rule they examine a set of free and commercial operating systems (e.g. BSD clone, Linux, Solaris, etc.)
and are able to modernize a HTTP daemon according to their requirements very quickly. These specialists have
also additional «advantage» due to some time lag in technical level which allows them to turn towards
choosing either approach and equipment. And as result a taken strategy and methods of implementation are
usually correct and extensive. Total number of persons which are capable of handling access to the Internet and
IP services is estimated as 20–30 people per ordinary Russian city except the capital one.
Dynamics and geography
In the end of 1994 your fingers were enough to account all Russian Web sites. Now, in the middle of 1996 there
are almost 400. About 60–70% from them operate on regular basis. 70% of the servers are concentrated in
Moscow and St.Petersburg where only 10% of the population live. Nevertheless you can find new interesting
ideas also in Khabarovsk, Yaroslavl, and other large cities.
In the same 1994 few people or small and middle firms could venture to use direct IP or SLIP/PPP connections.
The providers were rare and their services were too expensive (say, $200–800 monthly). Next year was a
turning-point. Splash of activity was caused by realization of some projects on increasing the lines capabilities