Comstar launched WI-FI in Moscow subway

Comstar-United TeleSystems announced the commercial launch of Wi-Fi Internet in the Moscow subway. At present Comstar-UTS provides Wi-Fi services in the three heavily trafficked underground stations – “Okhotny’ Ryad”, “Teatral’naya” and “Ploschad’ Revolyutsii”. There are twenty one hot-spots covering an area of two square kilometers, which includes waiting halls, passages, escalators and entrance halls. Tunnels in between stations are not yet covered by this network. At this stage the network capacity allows the simultaneous access of 48 users at a speed of 128 Kbit/s. According to Comnews.ru, Comstar's underground Wi-Fi network at the moment includes 130 hot-spots. Earlier the provider announced it would have the subway network launched by the end of 2006 with 22 hot-spots allowing simultaneous access of 400 users. Further the company plans to cover all interchange stations in the Moscow metro and launch similar services in St. Petersburg, where the Wi-Fi network is already undergoing tests at two stations.