YAKUTSK, May 24. /TASS/. Investments in making fiber-optic networks in Yakutia’s Arctic and northern districts are estimated at 4.1 billion rubles ($72 million), the region’s Deputy Minister for Development of the Arctic Mikhail Pogodayev told TASS on Tuesday.

Telecommunication operators use mostly satellite communication channels in most parts of the Arctic zone. Due to the high costs of renting satellite channels, their communication services have limited capacities.

"According to preliminary estimations, presented to the regional government, the required amount of investments in projects to make fiber networks in the Arctic and northern districts, involving co-financing approaches and budgets of all levels, for the period to 2024 will make 4.1 billion rubles," he said on the fringes of the Arctic: Territory of Development conference.

The Olenyoksky District was Yakutia’s first district to get a fiber Internet connection. Under a municipal-private partnership, in December 2020 was laid a 450-kilometer line between Udachnyi and Olenyok.

The Arctic: Territory of Development Conference on Ensuring a Comfortable Urban Environment takes place in Yakutsk on 22-25 May as part of main events being organized by the Roscongress Foundation for Russia’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021-2023.