Turkey pledges support for int'l 'information super highway' project
By Aynur Jafarova
Turkey is ready to support the implementation of Trans-Eurasian
Information Super Highway
Ismail Alper Coskun said at a meeting with Azerbaijani Minister of Communication and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov that Turkey is represented in the project by its huge operator Turk Telecom.
Turk Telecom, which participates in the project by its subsidiary Pantel, acts as a link liaising TASIM member countries with major European operators.
Pantel, a major telecommunication operator in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe, owns about 27,000 km of telecommunication lines, including fiber optic cables, equipment for DWDM multiplexing and access to national data transfer in Turkey.
The TASIM project will contribute to creating an open information society in the region, to increase the speed of Internet connection and promote the development of Internet services, which, in turn, will lead to economic development, diversification of the economy and increased competition. The project envisages the creation of a major transit link from Frankfurt, Germany to Hong Kong. The line will combine the major centers of information exchange in Europe and Asia. The transit line will stretch through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to Germany. Reserve North transit line will pass through the territory of Russia, Ukraine and Poland.
The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution December 21 on expanding internet access by creating the trans-Eurasian information highway upon Azerbaijan's initiative.
Azerbaijan organized the first international workshop on TASIM in July 2011 in Gabala, which was attended by leading telecom companies - China Telecom (China), Kaztranscom (Kazakhstan), Rostelecom (Russia), Turk Telecom and Pantel. A secretariat of the project was created as a result of the meeting and the operators agreed to start work on a detailed memorandum of understanding for establishment of a consortium under TASIM.
TASIM is a long-term initiative and will be implemented in two stages.
During the first phase leading regional countries and operators will create major Internet transit infrastructure, linking the West and East. The process is planned to be completed in late 2013.
In the second phase of the project, it is supposed that by using the created transit infrastructure, TASIM will provide the Eurasian countries that do not have direct access to open sea, including Central Asian states, with Internet connection at affordable rates. According to the plan, new fiber-optic lines will be constructed, while the existing ones will be upgraded and connected to the TASIM network.