The CAREN (Central Asia Research and Education Network) project provides point to point connectivity to form an international data network service the Central Asian national research and education networks (NRENs) and their users. The current CAREN project provides connectivity for the NRENs in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. This second phase of the CAREN project sought to increase capacity and the geographical coverage initially up to late 2014 and planned to be extended for further periods subjec to EC co-funding approvals.

To support this new phase this tender sought to provide:

1. Intra-regional connectivity between the 5 NRENS in the following countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Link capacities in the range 34Mbps to 1000Mbps.

2. Connectivity between the 5 NRENs in 1 above and the GÉANT network in Europe (www.geant.net) or the TEIN4 network in Asia (http://www.teincc.org/tein4/) either directly or via geographically intermediate points that contribute to cost effecive inter-regional connectivity for Central Asia. Link capacities in the range of 100Mbps to 2500Mbps.