|
In September of 2004 in Ventspils University College started a distance education course with Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (KTH) by using the optic cable which is dragged across the bottom of the Baltic Sea – from Ventspils to Gotland to Stockholm.
In two years time, in frameworks of the project “BalticOpen.net”, there has been created an underwater cable connection between KTH and Ventspils University College. It is planned that the capacity of the data cable will be 1Gbps. Thanks to the KTH support and collaboration, in Ventspils University College there is created the necessary technical and programme supply for operators neutral network. On the next stage of the project Ventspils University college plans to change the radioconnection from Staldzene to the Ventspils University College with fibre optic cable through Ventspils city. Total length of the trunk line is 350 km, but the distance form Gotland to Latvia in the Baltic Sea is 175 km.
The successful connection between KTH in Stockholm and Ventspils University college allows to start the planned academic collaboration. The distance education course “ICT Enterpreneurship” lecturing will be done by KTH professor Lena Ramsfelt, but from Ventspils University college the course will be conducted by Aivars Zemîtis. During the course it is planned to collaborate with Stanford University (USA). In Ventspils University college the course can successfully go thanks to created interactive learning room, which is equipped with iROS (interactive room operating system) and video frequency equipment which was helped to set up by the KTH students of masters degree.
The underwater optic cable connection was created thanks to the financial support of Ventspils municipal government and KTH technical support, and also thanks to the optic cable operator “Stokab AB” (Sweden) and Ltd “Baltcom fibre” (“Foco 16 Latvia”) licence to use optic fibre pair and the financial support for purchasing the equipment. The Ltd “Baltcom Fibre” representatives think, that at this moment the technical facilities of the optic cable are far beyond the existing market demands and that is why we can dedicate one pair of optic cable for academic goals.
One of the next goals of Ventspils University College is to create a neutral network branch of Stockholm operators in Ventspils. The operators’ neutral networks are more and more popular in advanced European countries and they are as intermediate between final consumers and service provider. By connecting that kind of network the consumer can choose for himself the most desirable service provider and services. For example Ventspils University College can use the same service providers that are available for Stockholm’s operator neutral network (www.stockholmopen.net) users. By using modern technologies it is possible to expand this kind of network in global scale, for example, in all countries of the Baltic Sea region, which would create more alternatives for users, facilitating accessibility of Internet and improving the quality of services.
|
