<hdr>The World Factbook 1994: Russia<nl>Communications</hdr><body>
<list>
<item><hi format=bold>Railroads:</hi> 158,100 km all 1.520-meter broad gauge; 86,800 km in common carrier service, of which 48,900 km are diesel traction and 37,900 km are electric traction; 71,300 km serves specific industry and is not available for common carrier use (30 June 1993)
<item><hi format=bold>Highways:</hi>
<list style=hang>
<item>• <hi format=ital>total:</hi> 893,000 km
<item>• <hi format=ital>paved and gravel:</hi> 677,000 km
<item>• <hi format=ital>unpaved:</hi> 216,000 km
</list>
<item><hi format=bold>Inland waterways:</hi> total navigable routes in general use 100,000 km; routes with navigation guides serving the Russian River Fleet 95,900 km; of which routes with night navigational aids 60,400 km; man-made navigable routes 16,900 km (30 June 1993)
<item><hi format=bold>Pipelines:</hi> crude oil 48,000 km; petroleum products 15,000 km; natural gas 140,000 km (30 June 1993)
<item><hi format=bold>Telecommunications:</hi> Russia is enlisting foreign help, by means of joint ventures, to speed up the modernization of its telecommunications system; NMT-450 analog cellular telephone networks are operational and growing in Moscow and St. Petersburg; expanded access to international E-mail service available via Sprint network; intercity fiberoptic cable installation remains limited; the inadequacy of Russian telecommunications is a severe handicap to the economy, especially with respect to international connections; total installed telephones 24,400,000, of which in urban areas 20,900,000 and in rural areas 3,500,000; of these, total installed in homes 15,400,000; total pay phones for long distant calls 34,100; telephone density is about 164 telephones per 1,000 persons (in 1992, only 661,000 new telephones were installed compared with 855,000 in 1991 and in 1992 the number of unsatisfied applications for telephones reached 11,000,000); international traffic is handled by an inadequate system of satellites, land lines, microwave radio relay and outdated submarine cables; this traffic passes through the international gateway switch in Moscow which carries most of the international traffic for the other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States; a new Russian Raduga satellite will link Moscow and St. Petersburg with Rome from whence calls will be relayed to destinations in Europe and overseas; satellite ground stations—INTELSAT, Intersputnik, Eutelsat (Moscow), INMARSAT, Orbita; broadcast stations—1,050 AM/FM/SW (reach 98.6% of population), 7,183 TV; receiving sets—54,200,000 TVs, 48,800,000 radio receivers, 74,300,000 radio receivers with multiple speaker systems for program diffusion
