Telephone service arrived in Kursk in the end of the nineteenth century. In 1891 the first telephone lines were installed at Kursk Governor's residence and in Kurskiye Gubernskiye Vedomosti newspaper editorial office. The first telephone exchange's capacity was only 20 telephone numbers. But within five years the number of telephone users quadrupled. Very soon telephone exchanges were built in other cities of Kursk region, including Rylsk, Lgov and Sudja. It was necessary to link telephone exchanges in these cities; thus telephone network for the region emerged.
On July 1, 1934 Kursk regional telecommunications directorate was established. It allowed the gradual development of telecommunications system in the region. In sixties the number of telephone subscribers in the region reached 30,000 people.
Currently Kursk branch of CenterTelecom is the leading operator of fixed line telecommunications in Russia's Central Black Earth Region. It provides services to 230,000 subscribers to local telephony (90% of all traditional telephony subscribers in the region).
The branch is working on reconstruction of local and intra-zone telephone networks. Level of digitalization of the city telephone network has reached half of the network's installed capacity. The branch is continuing to build optic fiber telecommunications lines and developing cable TV services. Currently approximately 10,000 Kursk inhabitants use branch's cable TV services. The number of users of Kursk branch's Internet access services exceeds 12,000.
During implementation of "Electronic Russia" program over the past two years, Kursk branch has provided ADSL Internet access to a number of state organizations including regional General Prosecutor Office's Directorate and Federal Agency for Real Estate Property Cadastre, Kursk Regional Court, Vneshtorgbank's branches, Russian Post offices, etc.
Among the core business priorities for Kursk branch for 2009-2010 are increasing of number of ADSL and Ethernet Internet access subscribers through the use of FTTx technology, and development of digital interactive TV.