Nikolay Sokolov received a Ph.D. degree in electrical communications from St. Petersburg Telecommunication University in 1982. He joined the Research and Development Centre of Telecommunications (LONIIS) in 1974. Currently, he is a senior member of scientific staff. He is also a part-time professor at St. Petersburg Telecommunication University. His research interests are in the field of telecommunication evolution and network planning. In 1995 and 2000 he was the Guest Editor of Feature Topics published in IEEE Communications Magazine. He is the author of three books.