MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th August, 2020) Russia's mobile operator MegaFon is negotiating with Chinese companies the possibility of bringing them into the project of laying a fiber-optic cable in the Arctic, a spokesperson for Megafon told Sputnik.
"The Arctic Connect project will connect Europe and Asia. Chinese telecommunication and OTT [over the top media services] companies will receive an alternative and unique underwater route to deliver content to Europe. Signal delay in the northern regions of the country will be smaller compared to both the delays through underwater cables across the Indian Ocean and land routes across the Eurasian continent. MegaFon is already in talks with major Chinese operators to join the project," the spokesperson said.
In early August, MegaFon and Russian state geological exploration agency Rosgeologia launched a joint research expedition from Murmansk to the Arctic seas to explore safe routes for laying a fiber-optic communication line within the Arctic Connect project.
The Arctic Connect project will provide a fiber-optic communication connection between Europe and Asia � the two are home to 85 percent of the world's population. It will provide users with an unprecedentedly short signal transmission time with the lowest delay. Branches connected to the mainline will provide communication for Russian consumers in the Arctic and the Far East, including enterprises of the fuel and energy complex, which will contribute to the socio-economic development of the region.
