The conversation with Vladimir Vedeneev, technical director of GlobalNet, and Alexey Zakrevsky, director for operator relations at DataIX, took place in autumn 2018. The occasion was the completed year during which GlobalNet closed its merger deal with one of Russia's largest peering operators, DataIX. According to the company, the total length of its backbone networks is 7,000 km, and the length of its fiber-optic network in St. Petersburg is 350 km.
From St. Petersburg optics to international routes
Vedeneev recalled that GlobalNet grew out of the St. Petersburg broadband operator ElectronTelecom, which in the early 2000s built an extensive network of optical lines connecting remote districts of the city. The company began offering the spare backbone capacity between them to telecom operators. Later, Google and VKontakte became major partners.
According to Vedeneev, GlobalNet's international network consists of both its own channels and lines leased on a long-term basis; the company's equipment is installed and maintained on it. The Moscow–St. Petersburg–Helsinki–Stockholm route, he indicated, will most likely soon be extended toward Frankfurt and Amsterdam. "We do not view Russia as the only market," Vedeneev said.
He also explained why the company is in no hurry to go to eastern Russia. Initially, he said, the concept envisioned moving toward the East, but only after reaching at least Moscow; building the Moscow–St. Petersburg branch took about five years. Among the obstacles, he cited the lack of a developed dark fiber market in Russia and the high cost of entry into projects involving the infrastructure of natural monopolies. As an example, Vedeneev described an attempt to build an optical backbone to the Finnish border: after coordination with a monopoly company, which he did not name, the cost of the work rose from an estimated 20 million rubles to 2 billion rubles, and GlobalNet abandoned the project.
He named another problem as unjustifiably low prices in the telecom market. According to him, employees of backbone operators register their own companies and offer traffic below the market price, which lowers the overall price level. In addition, in Vedeneev's opinion, the market is destructively affected by vast distances, the economic situation, sanctions, and government regulation.
What the merger with DataIX brought
Responding to a question about the purchase of DataIX, Vedeneev linked it to the move westward: GlobalNet has a Moscow–St. Petersburg–Helsinki–Stockholm network, which, he said, will most likely be extended to Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
Alexey Zakrevsky said that DataIX was organized in St. Petersburg in 2009 to deliver in-demand traffic, primarily from VKontakte, to operators at below-market prices. The project expanded to Khabarovsk, but due to competition from backbone operators offering lower prices, it retreated to Yekaterinburg. In parallel, DataIX leased capacity in Frankfurt. According to Zakrevsky, after merging with GlobalNet, which had infrastructure, while DataIX had traffic, the company acquired its own backbones and reduced transport costs. He also said that DataIX is connected to 90% of the market in Ukraine and the entire market in Belarus.
Vedeneev called the combined project on the Moscow–St. Petersburg–Helsinki–Stockholm segment a classic IX built on its own infrastructure without leased channels. "I believe that on this segment we are the cost leader," he said, adding that the company will focus on the market.
Zakrevsky noted that the DataIX team remained 90% the same, and among the advantages of the new company he cited the democratic nature of processes and speed of decision-making. Internal communications, he said, are conducted mainly in Telegram, where there is a general company group and groups by direction, and clients are added to a common chat.
On the blocking of Telegram and the Piter-IX project
Commenting on the blocking of Telegram in Russia, Vedeneev said that "this story is not over yet" and that Roskomnadzor will continue to seek a solution. In his opinion, for Pavel Durov the issue of blockings in Russia has not become economically significant, since Russia is not the main market for the messenger. He spoke cautiously about the prospects of Telegram Passport: the service is gaining momentum in the world, but in Russia, he said, its development should not be expected for now.
Responding to a question about the St. Petersburg project Piter-IX, which offers small operators the ability to connect to a traffic exchange point almost for free, Vedeneev noted that the cost of an IX is not tied to anything. According to him, free IXs in the West ceased to exist long ago, since maintaining equipment and staff requires costs.
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