U.S. company announces undersea cable project that will bring Tirana much faster and more reliable internet service.
TIRANA TIMES
TIRANA, May 25 – A major fiber optic undersea cable linking Albania to Italy is expected to go into service in the first quarter of 2011, bringing Tirana faster and more reliable internet access.
UNIFI Communications, a U.S.-based international carrier, and Interoute Communications, the owner and operator of Europe’s most advanced fiber network said this week they had agreed on the project for Albania’s first competitive undersea fiber optic cable, to be constructed as the first phase of UNIFI’s Balkans-Italy Network project, which is expected to begin providing service in Albania by the first quarter of 2011.
According to UNIFI’s plans, the first phase of the project aims to provide seamless optical connectivity into Tirana, which is some 40 km inland from the 240 km Adriatic Sea crossing. The next immediate steps for UNIFI will involve finalizing the selection of its undersea cable supplier, and meeting with potential partners that may be interested in modifying the cable configuration to include one or more branching units for expedited future connection of additional cable segments to other countries, such as Montenegro, Greece, or perhaps even Middle Eastern countries across the Mediterranean Sea.
“As early as next week, UNIFI expects to begin providing more information about the BIN project to potential customers, including pre-construction bandwidth sales incentives for transport services offerings in Albania,” said Brian Crawford, UNIFI Vice President of Business Development.
Under the agreement, Interoute is responsible for providing the required facilities and support in Italy to allow UNIFI’s undersea cable to land and connect through Italy to major telecommunications Network Access Points located in Milan, Italy and Frankfurt, Germany.
“Also as a part of the first phase, UNIFI plans to establish Albania’s first NAP, which will facilitate interconnections among the country’s telecom operators and ISPs, and is expected to become a major telecommunications hub for the Balkan region,” UNIFI said in a press release. “To address region-wide market needs, UNIFI plans for subsequent phases of BIN to include development of additional terrestrial connectivity into the neighboring countries נGreece, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro. Such fiber links will stimulate the growth of connectivity into other regional markets such as Bulgaria and Turkey.”
UNIFI Communications, headquartered in New York City, is a major international voice carrier and a leading provider of enhanced telecommunication services and solutions.
