34,000 kilometers of fiber to towns of 250-500 people. The government program, managed by Rostelecom, offers basic service at 10 megabits for less than $1/month to about a million Russians. Complete universal service coverage of Russia will require 215,000 kilometers and is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2018.
Let’s hope the Russians do better than the Indians, whose similar “fiber to the village” program is the better part of a decade late. India’s telecom programs are world-class examples of inefficient government work. Less reported is the equally incompetent American “public-private partnership.”