Page 26 - bneMag Dec22

26 I Companies & Markets bne December 2022
bne:Tech
Asia-to-Europe Digital Silk Way investors to lay ‘internet corridor’ across bottom of Caspian Sea
Aida Kadyrzhanova in Almaty
Central Asia and the South Caucasus have lately been alive with talk of shipping more cargo and oil across the Caspian Sea, but far older plans – concerning the shipping of internet traffic across the inland body of water – now also appear to be moving forward.
The Digital Silk Way is a long-discussed project to form a digital corridor running between Asia and Europe via Azerbaijan and Georgia, providing alternative and extra internet access for a great number of countries.
At the end of October, it was announced that Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan would in 2023 start the construction of fibre- optic communication lines (FOCLs) along the bottom of the Caspian Sea linking the two countries.
Once fully launched, the Digital Silk Way is expected to benefit up to 1.8bn people residing in Central and South Asia, the Caucasus and Middle East. Caspian seabed FOCLs will run across two routes, namely Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan.
The Digital Silk Way project has been advanced by Azerbaijan’s NEQSOL Holding. Implementation falls to AzerTelecom, an operator that connects Azerbaijan to the global internet network. A partnership of AzerTelecom and
Kazakhstan’s TransTeleCom and KazTransCom will roll out the 380 to 400-kilometre-long northern section of the Trans- Caspian fibre-optic cable. An inter-state agreement helps to underpin the project.
For the 300-km southern line, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan signed an agreement in November 2019. Set to link Siyazan in Azerbaijan and Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan, it will form part of the main backbone of the Digital Silk Way connecting Frankfurt, Germany, and Mumbai, India, via Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"All the countries of Central Asia are interested in the speedy implementation of this project, since the availability of alternative routes plays a big role in providing guaranteed access to the internet for the residents of our countries," said Bagdat Musin, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry.
Difficulties emerged for Digital Silk Way ambitions, when
in 2018 Azerbaijan’s NEQSOL decided to acquire Georgian telecom company Caucasus Online, which owns a critical Black Sea cable link. However, Georgia’s communications market regulator, GNCC, last year set out to reverse NEQSOL’s acquisition of 49% of Caucasus Online, claiming that prior consent for the move was not requested.
Once laid, the fibre-optic lines across the bottom of the Caspian Sea will open up huge reach across Europe and Asia for Digital Silk Way. / AzerTelecom
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