Electronic mail of various flavors has been available in Moscow for some years, but only more recently have many people been hooking up to the Internet here. The Internet is a vast sprawling network that enables computer users to do things like send e-mail abroad, log into on-line services like CompuServe and tap into a huge number of public domain archives, libraries and databases situated anywhere in the world.


The reason not just anyone can access the Internet in Russia is that you need to make a high-speed connection using a communications protocol called TCP/IP, which you cannot do with a dial-up telephone connection and a personal computer. Thus, unless you are a large organization with enough money for your own leased lines, you need a third party provider. Serious users of the Internet will buy dedicated lines from these companies, but for occasional users it is possible to connect your computer to a service provider and hook up to the Internet as you would to a local e-mail service.


The companies offering Internet access in Moscow are mostly the same firms that are selling e-mail services. Though there are now quite a few commercial services offering connections throughout Russia, only a handful of them are suitable for small users. You will find that firms in other cities will all be affiliated with one or more of these Moscow service providers.


The Relcom network is the Russian equivalent of the Internet, with thousands of access points (nodes) around the country offering dial-up e-mail. In Moscow, it is possible to get full Internet via the two largest nodes: companies called A/O Relcom and Demos /+. These services are Russian-oriented and tend to be a little informal. A/O Relcom Moscow charges a $300 hook-up fee and $0.10 per minute for full Internet access. Demos/+ charges $300-$500 per month, regardless of traffic. Glasnet is a smaller operation slightly better geared to providing Internet connectivity to smaller users. It offers all of its users dial-up access to the full Internet. There is a hook-up fee of around $15 and access works out at around 75 rubles per minute. This service is better for dabblers than heavy users, since band width is limited.


Sovam Teleport provides some of the most sophisticated Internet services available in Russia today, including the chance to establish and manage your own domain (a domain is an e-mail address which allows you to connect any number of users and contains only information about your company with the suffix "com"). One-time hook up fees start at $100, plus $10 per hour online time. Up to one megabyte of traffic abroad costs another $10 per month.


Moscow-based Infocom also offers access to the Internet or on-line services like CompuServe via the InfoNet data network. Prices tend to be on a par with Sovam Teleport.


The one company you would expect to offer this service but doesn't is Sprint. In the United States, Sprint offers a service called Sprint Link, which is an Internet gateway. Sprint Link is not yet available here, but the company promises to introduce the service in 1995.





Robert Farish is the editor of Computer Business Russia. Tel: 198-6207, Internet e-mail: farish@glas.apc.org