In other words, if one makes a long-distance call or originates Internet contact to or from Russia, it is likely that Rostelecom is providing part of the service.

On June 26, 1990, the Ministry established a state-owned joint-stock company Sovtelekom, which obtained the rights to operate the telecommunications network of the USSR.

In December 2006, Rostelecom and the telecommunications company KDDI in Japan under the "Transit Europe - Asia" signed an agreement to build a line of Nakhodka - Naoetsu with total bandwidth of 640 Gbit/s instead of the previous 560 Mbit/s.

[6] On 24 February 2022, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions against Rostelecom.

[11] Rostelecom is a key strategic innovator that provides solutions[12] in the following fields: E-Government, cybersecurity, Beeline and MTS data-centres and cloud computing, biometry, healthcare, education and housing & utility services.

[14] In April 2013 the company announced the launch of 3G+ networks in the Sverdlovsk, Kurgan and Chelyabinsk regions, in the south of the Tyumen Oblast and in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area.

[16] In December 2013, Rostelecom board approved a plan to merge its mobile business into Tele2 Russia, former division of Nordic telecoms group Tele2 which sold it in April 2013 to VTB Bank due to the lack of 3G and 4G data licences, limiting its future growth prospects.

Rostelecom would get a 45% voting stake in the new company, T2 RTK Holding, in exchange for contributing its standalone mobile subsidiaries and assets, including SkyLink.

[19] In February 2014 Rostelecom and Tele2 signed a framework agreement on the integration of mobile assets to the authorized capital of the joint venture "T2 Rus Holding".

[21] What makes the list of affected networks 'curious' is the high number of financial institutions such as: MasterCard, Visa, Fortis, Alfa-Bank, and more.