Bulgaria's telecommunications operator Neterra completed a one-year project for the construction of a telecommunication channel linking the Bulgarian capital Sofia to global telecom networks. The high-speed telecom highway linking Bulgaria to the telecom networks of neighbouring Romania has a capacity of 622 Mbps and meets the data transfer requirements of the country's major telecom operators and Internet providers.
The project is worth over $1 million and has been co-financed by Neterra and NBG-owned United Bulgarian Bank and Interlease. The project's consultant is Austria-based investment bank EPIC. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development extended additional financing for the consultancy work under its Business Advisory Services (BAS) programme.
Telecom operators Mobiltel, Mobikom, Macedonian Sonet as well as Lirex Net, ElitSat, STS Holding have already signed up for the new service.
"The project's finalisation will help expand the scope of services provided by our company. Neterra will no longer be only the satellite hub of Bulgaria, but will provide reliable ground communications, data and Internet transfer and corporate communications," Neterra President Neven Dilkov said.
"We highly value the ideas and professionalism of the Neterra team, demonstrated in the course of implementation of this complex project. The Neterra team have shown proactive thinking and the ability to add value in a dynamic sphere of activity where good ideas do not always meet with successful realisation," Interlease Executive Director Teodor Marinov said.
Neterra is Bulgaria's only alternative telecommunications operator licensed to provide international connectivity on the country's territory and is the first operator which has developed its own network linking Bulgarian operators to global telecom networks.
Neterra provides connectivity to I.T.E.N.O.S., one of Europe's largest data centres, based in Frankfurt via an optic fibre cable across Romania.