Russia telecommunication operator TransTeleCom Company CJSC plans to build the third telecommunication route to bridge Asia and Europe.

With the completion of the "Eurasia Highway", the cable will be able to carry up to 10 gbps from the mainland to Europe and would cater to the huge demand on TV broadcasting in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic.

TTC International Sales and Marketing Senior Vice-President Igor Kelshev told China Daily that the company would tie up with China Telecom to establish outfits for cross-border interconnection.

The project is part of the Asia Pacific strategy for TTC - offering major Asia Pacific carriers and operators an alternative high-capacity route connecting Asia and Europe.

"We will install POP (Points of Presence) in Hong Kong and Tokyo. The one in Hong Kong has started to operate."

"We are now working on with China Telecom to build redundancy ring in the territory between Russia and the mainland for the POP in Tokyo, which is scheduled to operate in September," he added.

Earlier, TTC also signed an agreement with China Tietong, China Unicom and China Netcom to establish redundancy ring between Zabaikalsk and Manzhouli.

Kelshev said the deal with China Telecom is expected to come to be finalized in September.

In the run-up to the Beijing Olympic, Kelshev expected the market would be in high demand for large capacity, high-speed digital transition.

TTC will lift capacity to 10 gbps for both China Netcom and European TeliaSonera gateways by the end of 2007 in preparation for the Olympic game. The capacity is four times higher than the EBU (the European Broadcasting Union) required.

It is estimated that the Eurasia data transmit revenue would be up to US$500 million yearly until 2011. Kelshev believed that TTC's terrestrial route would make up 30 percent of the wholesale market.

Regarding the steadiness of transition, he said that terrestrial route was more reliable than undersea cables for data transition. "If one of the gateways breaks down, the transition will automatically shift to a new route in a fraction of second."

"The network chaos from Taiwan earthquake earlier will not affect us," he added.