Minister of Communications Visits the Digital STB Production Enterprise

The Minister of Communications, Igor Shchegolev, visited the General Satellite Corporation’s Association digital STB production enterprise.

“It is a misconception that digital broadcasting won’t be affordable for the general population of Russia. We are in the workshops of a company which is one of the leaders of digital broadcasting in Russia and is engaged directly in the production of telecommunication equipment,” Minister of Communications Igor Shchegolev said while visiting the digital STP manufacturing plant in Gousev, which is an affiliate of the General Satellite Corporation Association. The General Satellite Corporation Association plant in Gousev being visited by I. Schegolev.

The Federal Target Program for the “Development of Digital Broadcast in RF for 2009-2015” was approved in December 2008 by the Government Commission and the Minister of Communications was making a business trip for the first time since its approval to the regional leader in the production of electronic equipment for digital signal reception. During his trip he was able to estimate the capability of Russian companies’ to participate in the process of a national TV switch to digital format. The president of the General Satellite Corporation Association Andrej Tkachenko demonstrated to Igor Schegolev the production capacities for digital STB manufacturing, which have been operating in Gousev since 2007.

Nowadays its production capacity has risen to 100 thousand receivers a month. The honoured guest also had a chance to visit the plants of the General Satellite Corporation Association that are presently under construction and will be beginning operation in July 2009. Upon attainment of the project capacity the enterprises will produce up to 3,5 million STBs per year. The president of the General Satellite Corporation stressed that the equipment produced in the plant was a completely domestic radio-electronic product, and the works being constructed were part of the larger investment project “Territory of Research and Technological Development − Technopolis Gousev”, implemented by the Association in Gousev Municipal District.