Wise Ericsson Working For Smolny

<BR>Ericsson has supplied equipment to refurbish the telephone network at the Smolny, St Petersburg's administrative centre.<BR>The communications department of the governor's office ordered the new network, which service the telephone numbers of the city Legislative Assembly, the city and regional administrations, as well as leading enterprises and organizations, as well as providing a range of state of the artmultimedia and mobile communications options.<BR>Ericsson's management are not hiding the fact that the Smolny is a special client. The project was confidential to avoid other contractors taking the special financing mechanism applied to be standard practice.<BR>According to the general director of Ericsson's St Petersburg office, the Smolny's exchange was assembled abroad. This does not contradict Russian law, as the exchange will be used by government agencies. The Communications Ministry forbids the use of switching equipment manufactured outside Russia for in public networks.