When Links To the World Are Cut Off

The Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel and Americom Business Center is located in the center of Moscow along the Moskva River. Housed in a modem white building, it bills itself as one of the few Western-style, high-tech facilities in Moscow, complete with international satellite hook-ups and other 20th century gadgets. Inside, the shining marble floors and hurried business executives make it easy to feel that you are in any Western capital.


Now, a leak in one of the Moscow city waterpipes has reminded us how vulnerable such high-tech islands here can be.


Since Saturday night, the Radisson building has been without telephone links. This severely affects the operations not only of The Moscow Times and all the other companies with offices in the business center, but also of the hundreds of visiting Western businessmen staying at the Slavyanskaya Hotel. The damage caused by the telephone failure runs into the tens of thousands of dollars per day.


The communications breakdown was caused by the flooding of the Radisson's main telephone cable. This cable runs for approximately 5 kilometers from the building to one of Moscow's outdated telephone exchanges. A Moscow maintenance crew has been working to solve the problem, so far without success. But even if they manage to solve this crisis in the coming days, no one knows what will come next.


As a company in Moscow, we are living on a "communications time bomb". This is the third time within the last quarter that communications at our offices have broken down. It goes without saying that such a situation is a disaster for a newspaper.


That the entire Moscow phone system is on the verge of collapse is a secret to no one. The outdated switchboards have been stretched to capacity, and maintenance of cables has been poor. Foreign companies respond to this more and more by avoiding the Russian telephone system. Most Western offices now have at least one satellite phone connection, to make it possible to communicate with the company headquarters. Even for local calls, some businessmen now rely on portable cellular phones.


But although this may be a logical short-term solution, it does not address the vital problem we are faced with. In this day and age, telecommunications are an absolute necessity. Without phones there simply is no business.


It is obvious that a few satellite phones cannot begin to cope with demand for modern, reliable communications. What is needed is a structural approach to overhaul Moscow's telephone system. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be needed, but it would be money well spent.