CROS - 2017: the second call to Sochi

Already today, an event of undoubtedly significant for domestic telecom is starting - the Annual Conference of Telecom Operators, which will be held in Krasnaya Polyana for the second consecutive year in Sochi. Like all previous years, this again broke records in the number of participants. Under the cut a story about how it all began and how much CROS became a landmark event for the industry. Come to anyone interested.

In the middle of the 2000s, the Russian telecom was a kind of foundation for a multi-storey building, where it was necessary to build more labyrinths of floors and communications. How all this is done is understood only by a few, and this knowledge was so fragmented that it was only the collective mind that could deal with the large-scale “construction”. The vast expanses of our country did not allow all the enthusiasts of the telecom to get to know each other. Several people led by Pavel Nagibin came to the aid of the industry, deciding to gather in one place telecommunications workers from all over the country in order to communicate in a relaxed atmosphere. This is how the Conference of Russian Telecommunications Operators (CROS) appeared.

The geography of the first conference was wide. Representatives of 55 providers from 42 cities of Russia arrived at the recreation center near Ekaterinburg. Ten years ago, telecom in Russia looked radically different from what it is now, but the development of the industry went at a rapid pace.
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Among those present at the first CROS there were people who were still only carrying out plans for the construction and development of communication networks. All that they lacked was the knowledge base, and they got it.


Network pioneers

Many of these people have now built a big business and come to CROS as solid men in expensive suits, rather than “pioneers of chains” in sweaters and jeans.

The first CROS is still more of a spontaneous gathering of old friends than a conference of professionals, but as they say: “the first step was the trouble”. The following three conferences were held in a similar vein, and then came the heyday and reorganization.


The first KROS was similar to the corporate party at the camp site


At the first conference, the participants burned the effigy of Svyazinvest

Organization

At first, KROS managed to be organized with “little blood”, especially since “NAG” was then a modest group of like-minded people. If we take the first CROS as an example, the program of the event was modest and limited only to reports on professional topics, barbecues and a small show program. However, with each conference, the variety of domestic events grew, and in subsequent years, the constant appearance of the new became commonplace for KROS.




At the first CROS competitions were peculiar


Optics welding competition




Catching "Boars"


Throwing switches

The following years, with the constant growth of participants, the organization had to attract more and more company employees. Fortunately, the staff of “NAG” grew and an increasing number of people were involved in the organization. For example, at CROS 2017, more than fifty employees of the company had to be involved.

Public

The basis of any event is the people present at it. A permanent core of people attending the conference from year to year has been formed at CROS for more than a decade. It was these people who launched the word of mouth, thanks to which CROS became known without any advertising.



Now that the event is taking place in Sochi, and the number of participants has exceeded six hundred, it is clear that CROS is known and has a significant weight in the Russian telecom. However, at the very beginning, few people believed that the conference would show such vitality. Even the organizers had doubts and after the fifth conference in “NAG” they seriously thought that it was the last one. But surprisingly, there were even more applications for the next year.



As a result, every year the participants only increased, and in 2012 the number of applicants exceeded the capacity of the recreation center, where KROS passed from year to year. In 2016, a landmark decision was made to transfer the conference to Sochi. This could not but affect the price of admission, but this time the record for the number of people willing to take part in the conference was broken - applications were received from more than 500 people.



Who are all these people who come to the conference annually in the last week of May? At the dawn of CROS, representatives of telecom operators were some kind of “pioneers in elongated sweaters”, who were just beginning to develop their own business. At the conference then and now there was an atmosphere of openness and simplicity.



Now years later, installers and system administrators changed their working form and “stretched sweaters” to formal suits. They built their own business, thereby changing their own life status. Now KROS is already a congress of big managers and owners of large companies, who have managed to preserve the spontaneity and openness of communication that was at the dawn of Russian telecom.

Report part

The most tasty thing on KROS is not kebabs and beer unlimited, but the report part of it. Each year, the topics of the reports are like a slice of the problems that are of interest and concern to the industry. Tracing the topics of the reports you can trace the history of the development of telecom in Russia

So, in 2006, the resolution, signed by all participants, began with the wording: "To recognize the formation of a segment of the broadband communication industry, alternative to traditional structures and competitive to them."

In 2007 , participants for the first time discussed the issue of network neutrality, which remains relevant today. At the same time, the discussion of a new problem for operators was raised for the first time - “Means for managing users in large networks (for example, ITIL)”. And one more task confronted operators - the creation and operation of Internet services with "heavy" content (mostly video).

Another argument in favor of the “engine of progress” is the central themes of the next conferences. In 2008 , the battles turned around the report “Digital television in IP networks - it's easy!”.



In 2009, it became clear to all: the crisis in the economy did not slow down the development of telecommunications, and, judging by the reports of the participants, it even became a kind of stimulus for development.

2010: the market is getting closer, and therefore, among the main topics are fiber line participants and the development of infrastructure telecommunication services. For the first time in reports, the topic of wars with housing and communal services for entry into home infrastructure arises, which means that the problem has become aggravated due to the growing competition among traditional and alternative telecom operators.



In 2011, the report “The economy of ISP-enterprises in the conditions of stopping the growth of the subscriber base and the fall of ARPU” was recognized as the most relevant.



In 2012, CROS topics are related to the future of networks. Representatives of operators discuss technical issues with engineers from Naga.



In 2013, competition in the market is becoming tougher, and participants are discussing ways to develop in conditions of stagnation. At the forefront of technology sales. The equipment, the introduction of new systems of attention is less, although without new technologies - and everyone understands this well - it is also impossible.





The state’s fight against pirated content became the leitmotif of the telecoms meeting in 2014. Participants even donned cocked heads and took sabers in their hands.

On the tenth, anniversary CROS, the topics of cost optimization, tariff increase, which would not alienate subscribers, were discussed. The competition in telecom has reached a new level.

The reports of CROS-2016 were devoted to the quality of services, cost-effective solutions, improvement of business processes.

Today's Day

It is incredibly difficult to put in a certain framework a story about what happened to CROS in these more than a dozen years. I would have had to write a book, and in several volumes, because there is a lot of this that is worth and I would like to mention.

CROS is a unique event not so much in scale as due to that unique internal symbiosis where the business part harmoniously intertwines with warm friendly communication. According to the participants themselves, not a single industry conference can boast of such an atmosphere.





Russian telecom is developing in parallel with the development of communication technologies. Network coverage is growing, operators are expanding, the Internet is becoming available to almost everyone. All this cannot but reflect on such a landmark event for the industry as CROS.







Over the years, the organization of the conference has changed qualitatively: its entertainment and informational part. Expanded list and geography of participants. But over the years, CROS has not lost its relevance. Not turned into a meeting for the opportunity to "meet and chat about the past."


Karting on CROS-2016

The conference is, as before, a concentrate of first-hand knowledge - first of all, practical knowledge. This is an opportunity to get unique information, access to which is not in open sources. This is a festival of useful acquaintances and recreation for the soul, harmoniously interwoven with the problems of the daily work of the communications man.

CROS -2017 will be held in Krasnaya Polyana for the second time. The first participants will be met by the guys from Naga today, May 24, at 11.00 Moscow time. The conference will last three days until May 26. Meanwhile, the ridges of the Caucasus Mountains, seen in Krasnaya Polyana, are ready to meet the first participants.