Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway to be launched by mid-2013

The Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM) is expected to be launched by mid-2013.
The statement came from head of the TASIM working group, Ilyas Nayibov.
Plans are in place for the construction of optical fiber cable which will pass through the Caspian seabed, he reported.

The Center for International Relations and Payments at the Communication and Information Technology Ministry of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan’s KazTransCom have reached a deal to give equal funding for the construction of the cable highway.

"The Caspian segment of the cable highway is an important and integral part of TASIM project because the launch of the highway depends on implementation of the project. The research related to the construction of the Caspian segment will start in mid-2012," Naibov added.

It should be noted that a delegation from Azerbaijan, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad Guliyev, visited New York from 30 January-3 February.

According to the news service for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, the delegation included representatives of the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Communication and Information Technologies.

The goal of the visit was to hold bilateral consultations with the UN member-states for greater information about the work being done on the implementation of the TASIM project, which envisages the development of the information and communication infrastructures in the region.

The Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM) project is a major regional initiative aimed at creating a transnational fiberoptic backbone, primarily targeting the countries of Eurasia, from Western Europe to China.

During the Ministers’ Summit held at the 14th Azerbaijan International Telecommunication and Information Technologies Exhibition and Conference in November 2008, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Azerbaijan put forward the initiative to launch a project on building of the Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM). The project envisioned the building of an information superhighway that would benefit more than 20 countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
A special Baku Declaration to create the Transnational Eurasian Information Super Highway was adopted on November 11, 2008 in Baku.

On 21 December 2009, The 64^th session of the UN General Assembly adopted the Resolution on Transnational Eurasian Information Super Highway (A/res/64/186). The resolution acknowledges the role of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the realization of the TASIM
CO sponsors of UNGA Resolution are  Azerbaijan, the United States, Germany,
Australia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Afghanistan, China, India, Georgia, Switzerland, Israel, Iraq, Canada, the Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Kazakhstan, Qatar,
Moldova, Pakistan, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, and Japan.

In April 2010, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan established and funded an Executive Group on TASIM as a vehicle for TASIM
implementation. The Executive Group, in cooperation with a team of international consultants, created an initial business concept for TASIM and negotiated the establishment of a TASIM consortium with the leading regional countries and operators.
In July 2011 in Gabala, as an outcome of this preparatory work, Azerbaijan hosted The First International Workshop on TASIM, with the participation of leading telecom operators from
Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey and the European Union (Pantel).

 A Project Secretariat was established, and the operators agreed to work towards detailed MOU on establishment of the TASIM Consortium.

The last meeting of telecom operators on TASIM was held on November 2 and 3 of 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey.

The project team has considered numerous technological, geographic, and commercial options for the project implementation. The project team, working together with business consultants Booz & CO, as well as international technology consultants, has developed advanced commercial and technological proposals for TASIM implementation.

They have been and continue to conduct extensive commercial negotiations with leading regional telecom operators. International IP transit is a highly competitive, attractive business, where all major players have their own commercial objectives.  Moving forward with an international cooperation project as TASIM requires careful balancing of commercial interests.

TASIM is a long-term initiative that will be implemented in stages. The countries of the region are very different in terms of their level of telecom sector development and market needs. In more advanced countries, issues such as low latency and advanced services in IP networks become important. In less developed countries, basic connectivity and the price of accessing the international internet backbone are more of a priority.

Strategically, TASIM will be implemented in two big stages. In the first stage, key regional countries and operators will build major transit and transport infrastructure, connecting
the east and the west. This transit infrastructure will allow TASIM to become commercially viable and address the rapidly growing market of international IP transit.

TASIM will build its own active, centrally managed IP/MPLS network on top of existing fiber-optic networks provided by participating operators. This will ensure end-to-end quality and network reliability. While initially most income will be generated by the transit business,  a small but growing part of the income will come from advanced Service Exchange among operators. TASIM will eventually become the nexus of regional telecom interconnectivity.

The project is aimed at building a major new transit route from Frankfurt to Hong Kong. This route will connect the biggest exchange point in Europe with the biggest exchange point in Asia. Initial plans have the transit route passing through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and the countries of Eastern Europe on the way to Germany. A redundancy northern route passing Russia, Ukraine and Poland is also considered. All intermediary points on the routes can also be connected to each other, for example Baku to Almaty, or Istanbul to Kiev.

In the second stage, TASIM will leverage the transit infrastructure to provide affordable connectivity to the land-locked countries of Eurasia, particularly in Central Asia. New fiber-optic routes are being developed in coordination with national telecom infrastructure development plans, and the old routes can be upgraded technologically to allow integration into the TASIM network. Importantly, a lot of fiberoptic infrastructure in the region is already in place. The second stage will help TASIM fully deliver on its UN mandate.

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