On 6 June 2011 the 1st ENOG (Euro-Asian Operators Network Group) international meeting, opened at the Marriott Grand Hotel in Moscow. It became a new platform for interaction and development of joint approaches by technical Internet experts who ensure stability of the Internet infrastructure, development of interoperability of the global network and accessibility of Internet services for the population. Two registries co-sponsor the meeting: RIPE NCC, which allocates IP-addresses in Europe, and the Russian national registry, Coordination Center for TLD RU, whose function is to allocate and regulate Russian domain space.
In his opening address, Igor Khimchenko, Acting Director of the Department of Formation and Development of Information Society of the RF Ministry of Telecommunications and Mass Media, congratulated the participants on the opening of the meeting and read a welcome address by Igor Schegolev, the RF Minister of Telecommunications and Mass Media. “Russia becomes a key platform for dialogue with the global and regional Internet community, thus setting vector for further development of the Internet in Eurasia,” – that was how the Minister assessed significance of the 1st Eurasian Internet Operators Network Forum in Moscow. In his welcoming address, I. Schegolev also reminded the attendees that “Russia has authored measures for the sake of balanced governance of the global network.”
Paul Rendek, RIPE NCC, branded the 1st ENOG meeting a ”historic event” and congratulated its participants on joining the NOG family currently in existence practically in all regions worldwide. “It is critical to meet right under the auspices of regional NOG. This helps us share our thoughts and ideas at the regional level, start networking with our immediate colleagues,” – said he. “Under current circumstances, with new players – namely, business and governmental organizations - being engaged in Internet governance alongside with technical community, technical experts need to meet regularly and formulate a joint position to have their voice heard,” – accentuated Paul Rendek.
In his presentation, Andrey Kolesnikov briefed the audience on the way the Internet was developing in Russia. “Today, Russia is one of leading European nations in terms of Internet growth rates; what’s more, and this is critical for investors, is we have a great potential for further growth,” – noted Mr. Kolesnikov. He reminded the audience that two major modern European Internet companies are Russian-based ones – that is, Yandex and Mail.ru, and both have recently successfully run IPO.
Jim Cowie, Renesys, who is in charge of gathering, processing and analyzing information about the state of the global and local Internet market, offered the audience a detailed market analysis of the Russian Internet transit. He vividly demonstrated how Russian transit developed since 2007 and the role it played across Central Asian, Eastern European and the Caucasian nations. “Russian transit is beneficial to most of these countries; moreover, it is reliable and, passing through the territory of just one country, falls under a single jurisdiction. All this makes the Russian transit competitive in these regions," - said the speaker.
The 1st day of the ENOG meeting was crowned by the panel “Internet Transit, Diversity, Competition - Net Neutrality - What Content Fills Your Pipes” moderated by Vadim Vankov (Akado-Telecom) and Kurtis Lindqvist ( Netnod). The panel participants shared their vision of the net neutrality from the fixed-line operator, mobile operator and CDN-net operator’s perspectives.
