Foptnet, Westelcom, GN Link Russia and Georgia with Undersea System

Construction of the Georgia-Russia optical fiber submarine cable system—owned by Foptnet (Georgia), Westelcom (Russia) and GN Great Northern Telegraph Co. (Denmark)—has been completed. This marks the first optical fiber cable linking Russia and the Caucasus area.

The undersea system connects Novorossiisk, Russia and Poti, Georgia. From Novorossiisk there is access to Europe through the submarine cable system, ITUR, and through fiber optical cable networks in Russia to Moscow, the CIS countries, the Baltic states and Northern Europe. From Poti, digital systems to the Georgian capital Tbilisi and to Armenia and Azerbaijan are being established.

The submarine cable itself is 433 km long and consists of four fiber pairs. One of these fiber pairs will be equipped from the beginning providing a capacity of up to 30,000 simultaneous telephone calls. The system is based on STM-16 SDH transmission technology. The transmission wavelength is 1550 nm with regeneration in Sochi, Russia.

Edited by Meredith Lockard