The sector of communication services has turned into an industry leader in the last years, a locomotive of technological progress which is vital to the success of the economy in general. Much work in the sector of informatization and communication of RT done in the past 5 years allowed the enterprises constituting it to operate most efficiently, remain financially-stable, appealing to investors, and to keep on developing the telecommunication infrastructure no matter the World Financial Crisis and integrating new technologies in all spheres of life.

Great pains having been taken in RT concerning the development of telecommunication links, meeting the needs of citizen and those of companies in terms of modern telecommunication services, it allowed RT to occupy one of the leading positions among the Russian regions as it has elevated to an advanced level of informatization and communication and created a huge telecommunication infrastructure.

The gross income of 2009 amounted to about 28.8 bln rub., topping that of the previous year by 11%. The gross income specific weight, made by the enterprises operating in the sector in the gross product during the accounting period, was calculated to have outdone the previous one by 3,28%. The gross income should add up to 31,94 bln. rub. in 2010.

The investments made in the sector went up by 5% as compared to 2008, with the investments in informatization increasing by 16%. The investing in the capital investments in informatization and communication amounted to 4,5 bln rub.

A number of national, social and economical issues have been resolved:

-RT citizen telephone service security;

-The elimination of the “Digital Discrimination” between city and village as far as telephone service and internet access are concerned;

-100 percent access to the special services of telephone communication in every populated region of Tatarstan;

- The sector has absolutely been de-monopolized; it operated on terms of national-private partnership.

Due to the investment policy being followed, the total user base capacity has gone up to the number of 7,161 million users out of 3,8 million people residing in Tatarstan. The total user base capacity went from 5,089 million users at the beginning of 2009 to 6,043 million users at the end of it.

Much was done to curtail rates, attract new enterprises to operate on the Internet Service market, and to devise alternative methods of Internet access:

- The level of broadband internet access increased by 50 % and ran up to 653 thousand users.

- The overall number of Internet users added up to no less than 1617000

- A number of companies started working on integrating of Wimax 4G standard

No effort is spared to come up with new ways of informatization in Tatarstan. There has been a body of law created which is regularly amended; the main principles of informatization and communication were defined in RT with a set of suitable laws being adopted later on; and certain enactments and decree were issued in order to ensure the success of informatization in RT.

It has been decided that an information technology production cluster be created in the Republic, which will ultimately become the “Republican system integrator” with its functions being not only to provide the maternal enterprises with IT-service, but also the government sector, companies and RT residents, and, in the long run, it may allow access to the federal and international IT-service market. It is planned that the IT-cluster will operate based on the outsourcing model.

The industrial park created in the RT high-tech sector should make it possible to channel the financial and intellectual resources of the Republic in the right direction so as to ensure efficient high-tech production and services.

Radio and television

Overall, there are 50 television broadcasting stations operating in Tatarstan (30 of them broadcasting in both Tatar and Russian), 86 radio stations (22 broadcasting in both Russian and Tatar, 6 – strictly in Tatar and the remaining 58 broadcast only in Russian).

In the Republic, there are the correspondent’s offices of Channel one, Russia Channel, Channel 5 – St. Petersburg and Mayak radio. They are still working on broadcasting the federal channel kultura with regional cut-ins.

Much trouble has been gone to in order to develop digital TV-broadcasting in the Republic. The work on outlining the Republican target program on “The development of digital TV and radio broadcasting for 2009-2015” was effectively finished in conformity with the federal concept and the federal target-program.

The following goals were accomplished in 2009:

- Population TV-broadcasting coverage with no less than 3 channels: TNV, Channel One, Russia Channel - 100%

- Population TV-broadcasting coverage with no less than 5 channels: TNV, Channel One, Russia Channel, Kultura, Russia-2 - 73%

- Population cable TV-broadcasting coverage - 58%

- Population digital TV-broadcasting coverage - 38%

- Population radio broadcasting coverage with Radio Russia + Radio Tatarstan -100%

Postal service

Postal service, as it is, plays a pivotal role in the economy of Tatarstan which is bestowed upon the service of delivering mail to all social classes and has the largest logistic network of branches.

There are currently as many as 1061 post offices functioning on the territory of Tatarstan; 848 of them in rural areas.

Postal service in RT is provided by 10 operators. The results of 2009 indicate beyond doubt that postal service in the Republic is still working efficiently. There was a 1.3% increase in the revenues; that’s including in the sphere of mail (written mail, deliveries, other postal services), the commercial and financial sphere (pension, subscription, money transfer, communal services, telecommunications) and in the sphere of goods sale (jobs, services).