Georgian telecommunications provider Caucasus Online and U.S.-based Tyco Telecommunications, an industry pioneer in underseas communications technology, have signed a contract to construct a 1,100-kilometer underseas fiber optic system, which will connect Georgia’s Black Sea port of Poti with the Bulgarian city of Varna.

The system will serve Georgian markets by providing direct access to Western Europe via a state-of-the-art underseas fiber optic link.

The system will have an ultimate capacity to transmit 6,410 Gigabit wavelengths on each fiber pair for a total bandwidth of nearly 1.3 Terabits.

“The underseas solution we are deploying with Tyco Telecommunications will serve markets in Georgia and the Caspian region with a system that meets our stringent criteria for capacity, scalability and robustness using advanced, proven technologies,” Mamia Sanadiradze, the chief executive of Caucasus Online, said, adding that USD 75 million would be invested in the project.

Tyco Telecommunications expects to deliver the system in the fall of 2008.