The Algerian government will invite international firms to bid for the USD 250 million Oran-Valencia undersea cabling project by issuing a tender in September, a senior official told Zawya.
The project is scheduled for completion by May 2013, when it will link the Algerian city of Oran and the Spanish city of Valencia using six high-tech optical fiber cables laid over 500 km, project head Djamel Boudah said. The link will enable fixed and mobile telephone as well as broadband data services.
The cabling project will provide 80 gigabytes of capacity to Algeria Telecom in the first year of operations, rising to 1.6 terabytes in the second phase, Boudah said. An as yet undisclosed Spanish telecommunications operator is a partner in the project.
The project to link Oran and Valencia is the third of its kind initiated by Algeria, after the Annaba-Bizerte link between Algeria and Tunisia and the Algiers-Marseilles link with France.
© Zawya 2012
