TeliaSonera International Carrier Delivers Pioneering 622 Mb High-Speed Connection from Europe Over Russia to China.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- TeliaSonera International Carrier has signed a ground-breaking agreement with DANTE for the TEIN2 network. The agreement enables Asian scientists to be connected with a new 622 Mb high-speed fibre link from China to Europe, via Russia. The high-speed link enables researchers in Asia and all over Europe to share information and develop R&D projects over a link that has an extremely low round trip delay. The high-speed link is delivered in partnership with CJSC TransTeleCom.

DANTE, a non-profit organisation which plans, builds and manages research and education networks all over the world, has selected TeliaSonera International Carrier to be its provider of the first direct 622 Mb high-speed connection between Europe and Asia. The link was successfully delivered in February 2006 and DANTE has a further option to upgrade the link to a 2, 5 Gb capacity - the first ever link at this bandwidth to be connected at a transnational level through Russia to Asia. The transfer of the high-speed signal from Moscow to Beijing is provided by CJSC TransTeleCom, the leading Russian backbone telecoms operator.

Short delay is a very important factor for time critical applications within the scientific community and with certain business applications. In recent tests traffic routed over the link between Copenhagen, Moscow and Beijing had a round trip delay of maximum 160 ms, whilst alternative routes from Europe over the US to Asia have more than double that delay. The Beijing-Copenhagen link connects the TEIN2* network with its counterpart in Europe, GEANT2, giving Asian academics access to a potential 30 million European collaborators.

"Scientific applications of today such as High Energy Physics and Radio Astronomy require low delay over the transportation layer" says Ingvar Larsson, President at TeliaSonera International Carrier. "This new high-speed link to Asia over Russia is being offered in cooperation with our partner in this project, CJSC Transtelecom. Through that partnership we are able to offer the European and Asian scientific communities this unique and high quality connection for the first time in history."

"This new connection acts as a gateway for the TEIN2 partners, bringing Eastern and Western researchers closer together." said Dai Davies, General Manger, DANTE. "High demand from the Asian research networks for a direct and therefore much faster route to Europe has driven development of the new link."

"For us participation in the project is a responsible and important issue", says Sergey Lipatov, President of CJSC TransTeleCom. "TransTeleCom is ready to offer its modern network infrastructure and effective systems of technical support for creation of a reliable means for scientists' teamwork in Europe and Asia."

The TEIN2 network began operation in December 2005 and connects national networks in China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia. The network aims to bridge the digital divide between different countries across the region and foster closer links with European researchers.

About TeliaSonera International Carrier

TeliaSonera International Carrier is a global provider of cross-border communications services. We provide innovative solutions that help operators, service providers, content providers, and other large-scale users exploit new business opportunities. We constantly explore new ways for customers to increase profitability, improve quality and cut costs. Through intelligent use of our extensive network and high-quality technology, we deliver a wide range of standardized and customizable services, from bandwidth to advanced IP services. TeliaSonera International Carrier is a company fully owned by the TeliaSonera Group.

For more information visit our web site www.teliasoneraic.com

About CJSC TransTeleCom

CJSC TransTeleCom Com (TTC) is one of the leading backbone telecommunications operators on the national scale. It is a dynamically growing company, which is consistently expanding the range of innovative telecommunications services to promptly meet the growing demand of the market. TTC was founded in 1997. Its 100% stockholder is JSC "Russian Railways". TTC operates and maintains the largest Russian fiber-optical network of more than 50,000 km long. The network has 900 access nodes in 71 of 88 Russian regions and connects Europe and Asia. Today TTC is one of the top three leading alternative fixed line operators. TTC provides 40% share of international private line leasing and regional Internet access services and more than a half of IP VPN market volume. In the past 4 years revenue from communication services has grown 9 times. TTC has become for the third time successively, since 2003, the holder of the National {Company of the Year} award. TTC has successfully completed modernization of its DWDM based network (dense wave-division multiplexing) - Russia largest and fully geographically redundant DWDM network of 22,425 km. The network would improve telecommunication and information support for railroads and extend range of services. www.transtk.ru

* About TEIN2

TEIN2 (Trans-Eurasia Information Network) has created the first large-scale research and education network for the Asia-Pacific region. It connects regional researchers with their counterparts in Europe via GEANT2, the world's most advanced international research and education network, providing the Asia-Pacific countries with a gateway for global research collaboration. Initiated in 2004 and running until 2008, the TEIN2 network is managed by DANTE, the research networking organisation which currently operates projects in Europe, Latin America, and North Africa and the Middle East. Working in collaboration with DANTE on TEIN2 are RENATER, SURFnet and UKERNA, the National Research and Education Networks of France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, respectively, and Australia. The Asian partners are China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. For more information please visit www.tein2.net

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