Interfax
October 21

Japan's Mitsui & Co. Ltd. has won three of four lots in a tender called by Uzbekistan's Communications and IT Agency under a project to expand the country's telecommunications networks, a source at the agency told Interfax.

Mitsui will supply equipment for digital switching systems, SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) and data networks, and TV and radio transmission systems.

Results have not yet been announced for one of the lots, a contract for the delivery of equipment for a WLL (wireless local loop) system. The financial proposals of bidders are still being assessed.

The source said the Communications and IT Agency has begun negotiations with Mitsui on the terms of the contracts. The telecoms network expansion is being financed by a loan of 12.692 billion yen ($104 million) from the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

The project is set to expand the capacity of the telephone network in western Uzbekistan by 40,000 numbers, and launch a fiber-optic ring to backup existing backbones in the north of the country. Part of the loan will be used to build a national center for automated control of the telecoms network, and to modernize the TV and radio broadcasting systems in the north.

The project is expected to begin at the end of this year.

In 1995 Japan gave Uzbekistan a loan of 12.7 billion yen for the first phase of the project to development the country's telecoms network. The money was used to build 88 telecoms installations, including four international digital exchanges with capacity of 2,500 numbers each, and 70 switches with combined capacity of 252,000 numbers. Backbone and local fiber-optic lines totaling 2,000 km were also laid. The project was carried out by Mitsui & Co. and NEC.

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