| «Synterra Media» | |
| Type: | Closed joint-stock company |
| Foundation: | 2006 |
| Location Country: | Russian Federation |
| Location City: | Moscow |
| Key People: | Valery Krylov CEO |
| Area Served: | Russian Federation |
| Industry: | Telecommunication |
| Parent: | Multiregional TransitTelecom |
| Homepage: | www.synterra-media.ru |
Synterra Media (Russian: Синтерра Медиа) is the national backbone communication carrier of Russia,[1] which provides a comprehensive range of telecommunication services to national corporations, public structures, corporate customers, communication operators, content providers and private users in the territory of Russia and the CIS countries, Baltic states, Europe and Asia. It is fully owned by Multiregional TransitTelecom.[2]
In the mid 2000s, Mohamed Amersi, who headed the American investment bank Gramercy Communications Partners and Juan Villalonga created the Emergent Telecom Ventures (ETV) fund which gained control of numerous Russian fixed telecommunications firms including the Moscow-based firms Komet (Russian: «Комет»), Globus-Telecom (Russian: «Глобус-Телеком») and Telekom-Center (Russian: «Телеком-центр»); the St. Petersburg based Peterstar (Russian: «Петерстар»), and backbone internet operator RTKomm.ru «РТКомм.ру» which was established in 2000.[3] [4] In 2005, Synterra merged with ETV to become a major alternative fixed-line operator under the control of Eventis Telecom Holdings (Cyprus) (ETH), which was owned by Dmitry Ivanter (Russian: Дмитрий Ивантер) and Vladimir Androsik (Russian: Владимир Андросик), and was close to the "St. Petersburg group of communications" (Russian: «питерской группы связистов») and the Leonid Reiman associated "Telecominvest" (Russian: «Телекоминвест»).[1] Promsvyazkapital (Russian: «Промсвязькапитал») took control of Synterra.[1]
The company was founded in 2006. The aim of the company is to develop Synterra's media projects. In September, 2009 Synterra Group of Companies (GC) got operational control of Synterra Media as GC bought 40,01% stocks. GC "Synterra" owns 60% of "Synterra Media". That gives GC the right to make decisions on further development of this project.[5]
In 2010, Megafon under the leadership of Sergey Soldatenkov (Russian: Сергей Владимирович Солдатенков) gained control of Synterra Media with a 60% stake and spun off to Rostelecom several assets including RTKomm.ru, Telecom-Center (renamed Synterra-Media) and Globus-Telecom.[1]
On 22 October 2020, PJSC Rostelecom (Russian: ПАО "Ростелеком") agreed to buy a 100% stake in ZAO Synterra Media (Russian: ЗАО "Синтерра Медиа") from MTT (Russian: АО "Межрегиональный Транзиттелеком" («МТТ»)) for 1.5 billion rubles which allows MTT to focus on the integration of real-time telecom services or Unified Communications and Telecom API. Synterra delivers and distributes media content from the event venues to the television broadcasting companies such as Channel One, VGTRK, NTV, Russia Today, TV Center, Match TV. Both directly and through its subsidiaries, MTT had consolidated its 100% stake in Synterra Media in 2013.[6] As of 2014, MTT, which has 25 million subscribers, competes with Inoventika (Russian: ООО "Иновентика Технолоджес") for cloud computing.
"Synterra Media" and Microsoft negotiated cooperation. Companies offer joint decision of extra services for IPTV development for regional operators of broadband Internet access.[14] [15] The new digital TV on the base of Microsoft MediaRoom platform was launched in test mode on 1 July 2010.[16]