Swedish telecom operator Telia announced a massive investment to connect the Dutch province of Groningen to the rest of the world. To achieve this Telia is going to install a cable fiber connection between the city of Groningen and Gieten, a small town to the south-east. Telia exploits a glass fiber cable that runs from Amsterdam to Hamburg, on to Dusseldorf and back to Amsterdam again. But this cable misses Groningen by just 15 kilometers. Telia has now decided to construct a connection with the fiber network of the city of Groningen. This means that Groningen will be connected to Telia's international Viking network with connections in Scandinavia, Russia and the United States. On the new Groningen network Telia will offer all kind of services among which services with special importance to the university of the city. Telia is working on this project with a consortium of investors and is looking at the County council for financial support. Groningen is trying hard to put itself on the map as an ICT-City and this investment by Telia means a big boost for this initiative.
