Rostelecom picks Huawei for Russian subsea cable contract

Russian telecoms provider Rostelecom has awarded the contract for the construction of a submarine cable system to connect the Sakhalin, Magadan, and Kamchatka regions in Russia to the limited liability company Tehkompaniya Huawei, a subsidiary of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

"The project will create a highly reliable communication link for seismic areas with difficult climatic conditions, which will provide modern high-quality telecommunications services to residents of Kamchatka, Magadan, and Sakhalin regions, which cannot be achieved with the help of satellite communications," said the president of Rostelecom, Sergei Kalugin. "Construction of a new undersea link will solve the issues of the digital divide in the Far East."

The undersea cable system will comprise four fiber-optic cables reaching a distance of 1855 km. The maximum throughput on the cable will be 8 Tbps.

Huawei wins a comprehensive contract for the supply of equipment, accessories, and materials, as well as execution of works and services, including all the necessary work on the list of underwater and terrestrial parts of the system.

The cost of works and services for the undersea cable will total about 3 billion rubles (including VAT), according to Rostelecom.

"Huawei is pleased to participate in this large-scale project. We have all the necessary resources and expertise to implement such complex projects," the equipment maker chirped.

Preparatory work to produce cables and equipment begins immediately, the company says. The submarine network will be technically ready in 2015 with an expected in-service date of June 2016.

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