Rostelecom completed the creation of Vols Kamchatka - Sakhalin - Magadan

July 24, 2015 it became known about the beginning of the project for laying an underwater communication line Magadan - Sakhalin - Kamchatka. Customer company, Rostelecom contractor Huawei represented by a subsidiary Huawei Marine^[1]

Project objectives

Rostelecom held an open tender in 2014 to choose a manufacturer of equipment and a supplier of services and materials, to carry out work for the PVOLS project on the route Magadan - Sakhalin - Kamchatka. The winner was the Chinese company Huawei. The estimated cost of the project is about 3 billion rubles. The cable will be laid by Huawei Marine.

Cable-laying vessel "Cable Innovator," 2015

The underwater route will four times reduce the path of communication lines to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, compared to the existing ground route passing through deserted lands in the permafrost zone and the most difficult climatic conditions. The communication line will provide modern communication services as soon as possible and will significantly increase the number of residents in the Russian Far East who can use them.

The length of the underwater communication line is about 1855 km, the design throughput is 400 Gbps with the possibility of expansion to 8 Tbit/s.

Project progress

The laying of PVOLS began at the village of Ola, on the coast of the Magadan region. The communication line will run along the bottom of the Sea of ​ ​ Okhotsk with a depth of up to one and a half meters in the bottom. The length of the line is about 930 km from the village of Ola to the village of Okha on the northeastern coast of Sakhalin Island and about the same distance to the Kamchatka Territory. The landfall of the line is organized in the area of ​ ​ the village of Ust-Bolsheretsk.

The planned commissioning of the facility is the summer of 2016.

"The strategic task of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of Russia is to increase the availability of broadband Internet access services throughout the country, including the most inaccessible regions," said Dmitry Alkhazov, Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media. "Laying an underwater cable along the bottom of the Sea of ​ ​ Okhotsk is the largest project today that will solve the problem of digital inequality in two of the most important regions of the Russian Far East at once: in the Magadan Region and in Kamchatka."

"We are pleased to apply in Russia the experience of successful implementation of underwater networks around the world. We are confident that the new line will provide the highest quality of services for subscribers of the Far East, "said Wang Biao, CEO of Huawei in Russia

The first stage of construction of the underwater fiber-optic line has been completed

On September 17, 2015, PJSC Rostelecom"" announced the completion of the first stage of construction of the Kamchatka-Sakhalin-Magadan underwater fiber-optic^[2].

Underwater VOLS will connect the city of Okha on Sakhalin with the Magadan region and the Kamchatka Territory. The total length of communication lines is about 2 thousand km, the maximum throughput of the system is 400 Gbps per direction (with the possibility of expansion to 8 Tbit/s). Commissioning of the facility is planned in June 2016.

Cable Innovator, 2014

Cable Innovator began laying the cable on July 23, 2015 from the Taui Bay area (Magadan Region). The cable is laid along the bottom of the Sea of ​ ​ Okhotsk to Sakhalin. The cable laying vessel returned to the Magadan coast to perform work on docking the underwater and coastal cable segments. Cable laying is carried out using a special plough that plunges the cable into the bottom and is remotely controlled from the vessel. Throughout the PVOLS route, a specialized tugboat Neptunia runs in front of the cable laying vessel. With the help of deep-sea nozzles (grapnels), he clears the seabed from abandoned fishing gear and large debris before the Cable Innovator.

always nice when dreams become a reality. Residents of these regions have been dreaming for a long time that "optics" 'came to Magadan and Kamchatka. Today we are pleased to announce the completion of the first stage of work: the Sakhalin-Magadan underwater section with a length of about 900 kilometers has been completely built. The construction of the Kamchatka-Sakhalin-Magadan PVOLS is a truly global project that closes the digital gap between the easternmost regions and the rest of the country. VOLS reduces distances and will help Far Easterners live comfortably and work online, "said Sergey Kalugin, President of PJSC Rostelecom.

cable has already been laid along the bottom of the Sea of ​ ​ Okhotsk. In fact, the main part of our Magadan part of the project has been successfully completed. And in 2016 we will feel a completely new quality of life in the field of communications, "said Vladimir Pechenyi, Governor of the Magadan Region

Construction of PVOLS Kamchatka - Sakhalin began

On June 7, 2016, the Minister of Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation Nikolai Nikiforov reported to President Putin on the start of construction of a high-speed underwater fiber-optic communication line (PVOLS) along the Kamchatka-Sakhalin route.

PVOLS Kamchatka - Sakhalin, (2016)

The construction of a section with a length of about 900 km will be completed by laying PVOLS along the route Magadan - Sakhalin - Kamchatka. The commissioning of the communication line in the Kamchatka-Sakhalin section is scheduled for the first quarter of 2017. The provision of broadband Internet access services to the population of the Kamchatka Territory and the Magadan Region will help to eliminate digital inequality in the Russian Far East.

According to the minister, as of June 7, 2016, work was completed on the modernization of the support network in Magadan and the underwater trunk line on the Sakhalin-Magadan section, on the Kamchatka Peninsula, all work on the creation of coastal telecommunications infrastructure was completed. The ground communication cable was brought to the seabed at a distance of four kilometers from the coast in the Ust-Bolsheretsk area. A special DPS-2 class vessel designed for laying underwater cable and other offshore work - Cable Innovator - will install a coupling that will connect the ground and underwater parts of the system, and then begin construction of the underwater part of the Kamchatka-Sakhalin fiber-optic channel.

author = Nikolay Nikiforov Laying PVOLS is not just construction, it is a large-scale infrastructure project that will provide citizens with a set of services necessary for everyday life. Thanks to high-speed access Internet to residents of Kamchatka, Magadan, Sakhalin, they will have access to electronic public services, distance education, telemedicine. Combined with a well-functioning postal service, communication infrastructure is also the basis for small business development.

The official noted that the underwater route along the bottom of the Sea of ​ ​ Okhotsk, connecting the settlement of Ust-Bolsheretsk in Kamchatka with the settlement of Okha on Sakhalin, will four times reduce the path of communication lines to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky compared to the existing ground route.

Laying PVOLS is part of the program to eliminate digital inequality in Russia. The program involves laying 215 thousand km of fiber-optic lines (fiber optic lines) of communication to settlements where 250-500 people live.

Final Project Phase

On July 25, 2016, the press service Rostelecom announced the close completion of the construction of the Sakhalin-Kamchatka highway.

According to the company, about thirty kilometers remained to pass the cable laying ship to complete the installation of the underwater highway on the Sakhalin-Kamchatka section. To the final stage of work on the bottom of the Sea of ​ ​ Okhotsk, 900 kilometers of cable are stretched^[3].

Recently, a coupling has been welded on the ship, connecting the ground and underwater parts of the communication line. It will remain to connect the ground part of the cable with the sea.

We are at the final stage of one of our largest telecommunications projects in Russia - the construction of the Sakhalin-Magadan-Kamchatka underwater fiber-optic line. The work goes according to the schedule. Commissioning is planned in the 1st quarter of 2017, but we also do not exclude options for launching the line at an earlier date. Alexey Sapunov, Vice President, Director of the Far East Macro-Regional Branch of Rostelecom

Project Summary

On September 5, 2016, Rostelecom announced the completion of the construction of the Sakhalin-Magadan-Kamchatka underwater VOLS.

As of September 2016, residents of Kamchatka get access Internet to at a maximum speed of 2 Mbps, in the absence of unlimited tariffs^[4]

VOLS Kamchatka - Sakhalin - Magadan, (2016)

For the first time, the company announced the construction of the Sakhalin-Magadan-Kamchatka fiber-optic line in 2012. The construction of the fiber-optic line was planned, with the participation of Rostelecom and operators - VimpelCom, MTS and Megafon. But the latter withdrew from the project, which led to a change in the project economy, and the construction of the fiber-optic line did not begin.

In protest, residents of the Magadan region staged a strike, refusing to use satellite Internet.

In 2014, Rostelecom decided to build the FOCL on its own.

The total length of the fiber-optic line is 1.7 thousand km, the channel capacity is 8 Tbit/s. In a row, Huawei completed the construction. The cost of laying the canal reached 5 billion rubles. (taking into account the modernization of ground infrastructure in the Magadan region and the Kamchatka Territory). The project began with a budget of 3 billion rubles.

According to Alexei Sapunov, director of the Far Eastern branch of Rostelecom, it was previously planned to lay an additional underwater channel - from Magadan to Kamchatka, as a result of which the Sakhalin-Magadan-Chukotka triangle could operate. Such a site was needed as a reserve, it was planned to finance its construction from the federal target program for the development of the Far East.

But because of the high cost, the idea was abandoned. Instead, "Rostelecom" decided to lay the cable deeper to avoid possible damage by the minesweeper ships.

Commercial operation of the FOCL will begin after the delivery of the channel to Rostekhnadzor in the Kamchatka Territory. The maximum speed of Internet access will be increased to 10 Mbps, unlimited tariffs will be introduced.

After the launch of the FOCL in the Magadan Region, unlimited Internet at a speed of 10 Mbps costs 2 thousand rubles. per month.

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