TASIM project alliance to be announced in September

By AzerNews

Creation of an alliance within the project on building the Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM) will be officially announced in September 2013.

"Azerbaijan is the coordinator of the future alliance," Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov said.

New operators will be involved in the construction project, Abbasov said.

TASIM is a project of regional importance, whose aim is laying a transnational fiber-optic line covering the countries of Eurasia from Western Europe to Eastern Asia.

The project envisages the creation of a major transit link from Frankfurt, Germany to Hong Kong. The line will combine 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.

On December 21, 2009 a resolution supported by representatives of 30 countries was adopted at the 64th plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly for the creation of the TASIM superhighway.

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 lines will be upgraded and connected to the TASIM network.

The TASIM project will contribute to creating an open information society in the region, to increasing the speed of Internet connection and promoting the development of Internet services, which, in turn, will lead to economic development, diversification of the economy and increased competition.