DUSHANBE, December 4, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Open joint-stock company (OJSC) Tajiktelecom (Tajikistan’s fixed-line telecommunications network) and China Telecom Corp, Ltd (China’s largest fixed service telecommunications provider) have reached an agreement on construction of the optical-fiber communication line that will link Tajikistan and China.

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Khurshed Rajabmahmadov, the head of the communications and informatization directorate within the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC), said that agreement on that subject had been reached at a meeting of top manager of Tajiktelecom with China Telecom’s leadership that had been held in Nanjin, China recently.

Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of light through an optical fiber.  The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave that is modulated to carry information.  First developed in the 1970s, fiber-optic communication systems have revolutionized the telecommunications industry.  Because of its advantages over electrical transmission, optical fibers have largely replaced copper wire communications in core networks in the developed world.

Optical fiber is used by many telecommunications companies to transmit telephone signals, Internet communication, and cable television signals.

According to Rajabmahmadov, Tajiktelecom has introduced the optical-fiber telecommunications system in Dushanbe, Sughd and Khatlon provinces, as well as some of districts subordinate to the center in the west of the country.

“We have already launched the third phase on introduction of the optical-fiber telecommunications system across the whole country,” he said.