The Azerbaijani side approved the interstate agreement that envisages the laying of fiber-optic cable between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan through the bottom of the Caspian Sea, Trend news agency reported on Wednesday.

The Azerbaijani parliament ratified and President Ilham Aliyev approved the interstate agreement “On the organization of activities by communication operators of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan in relation to the joint construction of fiber optic transmission lines along the bottom of the Caspian Sea on Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan route, their ownership, and use”, signed on November 28, 2019, in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

According to the interstate agreement, the project on laying the fiber-optic cable line (Trans-Caspian Fiber Optic cable line) will be carried out by AzerTelecom, a telecommunication operator in Azerbaijan, and Turkmentelecom, a telecommunication operator in Turkmenistan. The cable will run from Siyazan to Turkmenbashi.

The cable line with the total length of 300 km will allow the transmission of data with a capacity of at least 2-4 terabit per second and form Digital Silk Road from Frankfurt, Internet hub of Europe to Mumbai city of India. The cable line will allow the transmission of Internet traffic from the European Internet centers to Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.

A 708-kilometer section of the Trans-Asian-European fiber-optic communication system runs through the territory of Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan currently has five international junctions of the main fiber-optic communication lines laid across the country - Ashgabat-Badzhigiran (Iran), Serhetabat-Herat (Afghanistan), Imamnazar-Akina (Afghanistan), Turkmenabat-Buhara (Uzbekistan) and Garabogaz-Fetisov (Kazakhstan).

Business Turkmenistan