On 15 October 2026, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan took part in the launch of the Trans-Caspian fibre-optic communication line. According to the official website of the President of Kazakhstan (Akorda), the 380-kilometre line runs across the Caspian seabed and was implemented jointly by Kazakhtelecom JSC and Azerbaijan’s AzerTelecom. It will form part of a new communications route linking Kazakhstan, other Central Asian countries and China with Europe, and can also be connected to submarine cable systems in the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
A Samruk-Kazyna press release the same day states that the line connects Aktau and Sumgayit, has a design capacity of at least 400 Tbit/s, and that subsea laying was completed on 5 August 2026, with coastal infrastructure ready in both countries. The project was delivered by CaspiLink, a joint venture of Kazakhtelecom and AzerTelecom. Samruk-Kazyna also says the line will strengthen Kazakhstan’s international connectivity, including for the Data Centre Valley under development in Ekibastuz, and create conditions for attracting global technology companies and advancing cloud services and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
AzerTelecom’s official notice matches these figures, describing an approximately 380 km armoured fibre-optic cable between Sumgayit and Aktau as a key component of the Digital Silk Way. Kazakhtelecom Chairman of the Management Board Bagdat Mussin said the route opens new options for data transmission between Asia and Europe.
For readers watching China–Kazakhstan digital and compute layouts, the published wording from Akorda (a route via Central Asia and China to Europe) and Samruk-Kazyna (links to the Data Centre Valley, cloud and AI) provides checkable anchors. Open materials do not disclose total construction cost, tariffs or a list of commercial customers.
Rules related to this news
This article is based on public notices from Akorda, Samruk-Kazyna and AzerTelecom and does not include unverified return projections.
Sources: Akorda, https://www.akorda.kz/en/kassym-jomart-tokayev-and-ilham-aliyev-participate-in-launch-of-trans-caspian-fiber-optic-line-1594542; Samruk-Kazyna, https://www.sk.kz/press-center/news/79529/?lang=ru; AzerTelecom, https://www.azertelecom.az/news/official-opening
(Cover image is AI-generated schematic art, not a photograph of the event and not a direct depiction of the news subject.)