ASTANA, Kazakhstan, June 18. Investments by telecom operators in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in the project of laying a fiber-optic communication line along the bottom of the Caspian Sea will amount to more than 23 billion tenge (about $50.8 million), said the Minister of Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan, Zhaslan Madiev, at a government meeting, Trend reports.
"The National Project proposes the implementation of numerous measures to develop the Digital Silk Road. These include the laying of a fiber-optic communication line along the bottom of the Caspian Sea, with a length of 370 kilometers. Investments by telecom operators in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan will amount to more than 23 billion tenge. Today, between Kazakhtelecom and AzerTelecom, a joint venture has been created, and a tender to select a contractor for the design and installation of an underwater fiber-optic line is being completed," Madiev said.
Also, according to him, a national West-East hyperhighway will be constructed, increasing transit traffic through the territory of Kazakhstan. At the same time, a data processing center of at least Tier III level will be built to store transit and international traffic.
"Freedom Telecom LLP submitted a proposal for these two items. Own investments in the hyperhighway will amount to over 17 billion tenge (about $37.5 million) with a deadline until the end of 2025, and in the construction of a data center, more than 90 billion tenge (about $199 million) with an implementation period until the end of 2027. The implementation of all these measures will provide an alternative route for international data transit and attract BigTech companies (Google, Amazon, and Microsoft) to the market," he said.
Meanwhile, AzerTelecom and Kazakhtelecom, the leading telecommunications companies of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, signed a strategic partnership memorandum on the project of laying a fiber-optic cable line along the bottom of the Caspian Sea as part of the "Digital Bridge" international technological forum held in Astana in September 2022.
The document envisages a strategic partnership between the two operators within the framework of the Trans-Caspian Fiber-Optic cable project on the Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan route. The Trans-Caspian Fiber-Optic cable project is part of the large-scale "Digital Silk Way" project, which provides for the formation of a digital telecommunication corridor between Europe and Asia.
