CPEC digital information channel ‘working well’: official

BEIJING: The “China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) digital information channel”, based on China-Pakistan optical cable, and serving the CPEC and global customers and partners were fully connected, said a top Chinese official.

Zhang Zhiyong, deputy general manager of China Telecom Group Co., Ltd informed the participants of 6th China-Eurasia Expo in Urumqi that China Telecom will use the opening of China-Pakistan optical cable as an opportunity to expand the field of communication cooperation and jointly promote the construction of a series of core projects of the China-Pakistan Information Corridor with Pakistani partners.

Close economic cooperation provides a solid information and communication guarantee, while information technology contributes to the digital transformation of the society and the development of the digital economy.

Speaking on the occasion, Tan Yijun, Executive Vice President of China Telecom International Co., Ltd said that on July 13 this year, the 2,950-kilometer-long China-Pakistan optical cable from Urumqi to Rawalpindi was fully connected and tested well.

According to Belt Road Initiative website, the Pakistan-China Optical Fibre Cable project provides 3G and 4G services to Pakistan. The cable spans a distance of 2,950 kilometers, connecting Rawalpindi (Punjab) with Khunjerab (Gilgit Baltistan) at the Chinese border at a height of 4,700 metres above the sea level, northwards to Urumqi in Xinjiang Autonomous Region (China).

The large channel of digital information in the corridor was officially completed and put into commercial use, which greatly shortened the delay between China and Pakistan and international communications.

In the past, the communication between Beijing and Islamabad passed through the submarine cable, and the delay was 180 milliseconds; now, through the China-Pakistan optical cable, the delay is only 81.8 milliseconds. This is of great significance to industries such as multinational financial transactions and telemedicine.

The construction company of the China-Pakistan cable network, the general manager of the Pakistan Special Communications Organization, Ali Farhan, compared the optical cable to the Suez Canal in the history of telecommunications.

According to him, Pakistan’s special communication organization will also cooperate with Pakistan’s largest telecommunications operator, Pakistan Telecom Co., Ltd., to connect land cables and submarine cables across Asia and Europe through Pakistan, and promote interconnection between China and Central Asia, Europe and Africa.