Bad news from Russia

[Misha]

Traditional telcos need to maintain the copper networks and with the erosion of voice revenues they are looking for answers.

Big traditional telcos all over the world are facing the same issue.  In Australia Telstra predicts home landline voice revenue will drop by 90% because of the proliferation of mobile phones and skype type services.

I remember how much phone calls used to cost before deregulation and the breaking of the phone monopolies. Way back when, I was in a long-distance relationship with a woman in a neighboring province. Used to spend hundreds of dollars to call her every month. Now, I would be spending $20 at most. Somehow the telephone companies survived and even prospered. The telephone companies also offer cell phones and satellite/cable television, and in turn they must compete with the cable companies who offer telephone services over the internet that uses their existing cables delivering television to millions of home. At the end of the day, "maintaining the copper networks" is an excuse IMHO by telephone companies pining for the monopolies they had in the past.

[ECOCKS]

Various thoughts and comments:

I have no doubt that the outgoing mail is subject to some sort of filtering overwatch process but am confident that there is no office cataloging all outbound mail by sender and destination. My only concern with them opening my mail, inbound or outbound, is that everything is carefully repacked and undamaged in the inspection process.

I don't know about Russia, but in Ukraine the provisioning of internet services seem to be more cable connections than DSL lines from telcos. Is it not that way in Russia too?

Skype-to-Skype connection is the only way I use Skype which appears to be the most threatened activity. The US telcos tried to fight this about 4-5 years ago and were defeated by the free market and sheer logistics. It is worrisome that these two considerations may not be enough to stop this from at least temporarily derailing VOIP in the FSU. As someone says, not because it is not their right to run their country the way they want to, but because of the inconvenience to people I know and to international communications among individuals.

While people who can should certainly "vote with their feet" when the opportunity presents itself, people get the kind of government they deserve. Stay or leave for  somewhere else, but this is hardly equivalent to establishing ghettos or camps.

[Misha]

I don't know about Russia, but in Ukraine the provisioning of internet services seem to be more cable connections than DSL lines from telcos. Is it not that way in Russia too?

The limiting factor would be the phone lines themselves. Has Russia finished converting its old phone lines to fiber optic? Western phone companies can offer high speed internet through their fiber optic lines which allow them to transmit much more data than the copper of yore.

[ECOCKS]

I suspect it is the same as in the US. The newer industry (cable) has newer equipment in the central offices and wiring into the homes.

[Misha]

I suspect it is the same as in the US. The newer industry (cable) has newer equipment in the central offices and wiring into the homes.

Or, Russia being Russia, it has fiber optic cable going to Moscow, St. Petersburg and a few large cities, and the ancient cabling for everybody else 

[Sculpto]

In the article a statement is made that the Russian telecom industry is losing money because of Skype.  I wonder just how many calls from Russia to the outside world actually do occur, as opposed to the opposite flow of calls to cell phones and landlines into Russia.  The comment just doesn't smell right. 

Many of us use Skype now to call Russia, and we plan to use Skype for L to keep in contact with her family after she arrives in a month.  Her family would rarely call her in the US.  Only in an emergency.  It is just so much more convenient and cheaper for us to call them with Skype or other methods. 

But, maybe they are losing money, although I find that hard to believe.

Bob is your Metro pcs still working?  Mine stopped a few days ago and their site says Russian cell phones are not covered.  Very weird.  I have had to go back to allrussia.com and that has been problematic also.. I would dial the right number and it was going to someone else in tomsk!  And, somehow, whoever it was that got my calls, figured out how to call my girl and tell her I had been calling.  Really freaked her out.  BTW.. she is passing up an article right now because she is afraid.  In the two years we have corresponded.. she has never passed up a chance to piss off someone in government..

Something is definitely going on beneath the surface of all this.

[Sculpto]

Sculpto,

I think you and many others sorta miss a very big point.

Back in the USSR days, folks needed permission to travel or emigrate. 

Today folks are pretty much free to choose where they would like to live.  If there is will, there are ways.. but the stark fact is that IMHO just because one form of rule is different doesn't mean it is universally wrong.  There is a thing called sovereignty - and the right of a state to protect it using whatever tools it has at hand.  Now if freedom of movement was in this mix I would tend more to agree with you.

As long as folks in a country can legally vote with their legs I really don't care much what happens within.  Yes, some things may disturb me but I really have no say in the matter.

Well, lets see how things shake out BC.  One thing I learned living in Mexico during the PRI is really paranoid is not paranoid enough.  First they open the mail.. then they limit forms of communication.. next they lock down the borders.. and remember, Russians are NOT free to live where they want inside the country.  You MUST have residence permits.  Lots of people ignore it, but, it is a risk they take and lots of them pay fines, bribes and worse when they get caught.

I know that sounds alarmist, but, I remember quite clearly the process in Mexico when the repression started after 1994.  It is always incremental, little things that people like Kuna can rationalize away as being normal.  But they do it that way so people don't freak out and then one day they wake up and the borders are closed and the army built a barracks right next to your village and entry exit control at every road.  I don't know if that is what is happening, and I am not advocating it as something to resist, YET.  But, there has been a process going on for quite some time in Putin's Russia.. first the control of the media and killing of journalists and human rights workers.. certain arrests of powerful figures.. appropriations of certain assets.. aggression towards smaller neighbors.. interference in the internal affairs of several FSU countries, the ongoing and apparently newly escalating conflicts on Chechnya and Ingushetia and other republics in the region..

[Sculpto]

Sculpto,

You didn't answer my earlier question about how this article would make you rush your girl out of Russia...

Instead you drew some strange parallel between Nazi Germany and Russia...   

Perhaps as a naked fire-twirling, gay bar frequenting Jewish man you could be highly sensitive about Nazi Germany - but really dude - is this the way your mind really works?

At least give newbies a warning that you're about to start manufacturing your next nucklehead excuse for racing into marriage before you've even met the girls family.

So...  seriously now...  can you explain what it was in this article that would make you "get my girl out before the crapola hits the fan."


 

Why would I even bother to respond to someone like you?  Your limited capacity to read and comprehend has already been clearly demonstrated as well as your inclination to portray yourself as someone who actually knows something.  Best of luck there fella.

[Sculpto]

Sculpto: The "Crapola" is much more likely to hit your fan if you exceed the reasonable speed limit than it is by applying due diligence. Due diligence IMO includes time with her family and friends.

I/O

I/O.. I would like to meet her Mom.  Her Mom would like to meet me.  But, as "A" pointed out when we had a rather intense discussion about it, one that led to her finally admitting what the issues are, she is willing to marry ME without meeting my family or friends and it is she that is leaving her country and taking a much bigger risk on ME than I am on her.  I will meet her Mom next May when she has to go back for exams and I will accompany her.

Anyway, lets not make this thread about my relationship.  My concern about getting her out of there is that she already has made some powerful enemies.  She just turned down an article proposal because of the risk.  She has never done that before.  So, she is obviously concerned about what is going on and a much better position to know than any of us. 

[BC]

Well, lets see how things shake out BC.  One thing I learned living in Mexico during the PRI is really paranoid is not paranoid enough.  First they open the mail.. then they limit forms of communication.. next they lock down the borders.. and remember, Russians are NOT free to live where they want inside the country.  You MUST have residence permits.  Lots of people ignore it, but, it is a risk they take and lots of them pay fines, bribes and worse when they get caught.

Well hells bells.. I've had to have a residence permit in every country I have stayed in..  Think Germany or Italy or other EU country is different?

They are not free to live where they want in RU??  That's new to me..  care to clarify?

[BC]

BTW.. she is passing up an article right now because she is afraid.  In the two years we have corresponded.. she has never passed up a chance to piss off someone in government..

Something is definitely going on beneath the surface of all this.

Surely what's above the surface is corruption in government, below the surface are ruthless businessmen.  If your girl is mixed in somewhere in-between and is experiencing troubles then look at the below part.  Would be interesting to read a few of her articles.  Who does she write for?

All in all Sculpto I also detect a good bit of 'white knight syndrome' - also dangerous stuff.

[Sculpto]

Surely what's above the surface is corruption in government, below the surface are ruthless businessmen.  If your girl is mixed in somewhere in-between and is experiencing troubles then look at the below part.  Would be interesting to read a few of her articles.  Who does she write for?

All in all Sculpto I also detect a good bit of 'white knight syndrome' - also dangerous stuff.

She freelances and her articles appear in different places.  I am not sure who the latest projects have been for.  Don't worry about white night syndrome.. first of all.. been there done that.. wont do it again, and secondly.. she wouldn't stand for it. 

One of the things that got us started in the first place was a discussion of an article she had written.  I liked her writing style a lot, but, the content was troubling and came from a very propogandistic pro Kremlin perspective.  I insisted she needed to see the outside world.  The real turning point in her mentality was the Georgia war.  She had just been in Chechnya shortly before and a lot of what she believed was shattered from that experience.  She surprised me by coming out 100% against the Georgian war which was obviously not a popular sentiment at least from official sources.  Who knows what the average Russian felt about it.

I am in the process of building a site for her that will be hosted outside Russia.  Once it is up I will share the url.