RETN launches Romania backbone route via Moldova & Ukraine

RETN has launched a new backbone route across Romania linking the Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine, adding a new physical connectivity option in Eastern Europe.

The end-to-end path connects Drobeta, Bucharest, Iași and Chișinău as a continuous backbone route. It provides an alternative to existing regional IP transit corridors and extends RETN's optical network in Central and Eastern Europe.

The new link ties Romania and Moldova into RETN's existing Balkans corridor, which connects Budapest, Timișoara and Sofia. This creates a new geographical path across the region and adds route diversity to its international backbone.

It also opens an alternative routing option to Ukraine through Moldova and to the Balkans through Bulgaria. The network is aimed at telecom operators, internet service providers, enterprises and international customers moving traffic across Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

Regional demand

The launch comes as Romania's broadband market continues to expand. Data from Romania's National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications shows the country had 6.9 million fixed broadband connections by mid-2025.

Of those connections, 37% were capable of gigabit speeds, according to the regulator. Average fixed broadband traffic per person has also been rising, pointing to stronger demand for bandwidth.

Internet use in Romania reached about 94% of the population by late 2025, according to market figures cited by RETN. Bucharest and Iași have become increasingly important centres for business, education and technology, adding pressure on communications infrastructure.

Physical route diversity is becoming a growing concern for carriers and network operators in the region, particularly as they seek alternatives to established corridors. New routes can help manage outages, distribute traffic loads and build more resilience into cross-border networks.

The project forms part of a broader push to strengthen RETN's footprint in Central and Eastern Europe. The company operates a Eurasian network spanning Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with onward links to China and Southeast Asia.

That broader network gives RETN a role in carrying international traffic between European and Asian markets. Adding a route through Romania and Moldova increases the number of path options available within that system.

Company view

RETN positioned the expansion as a response to changing traffic patterns and rising infrastructure demand in Romania and neighbouring markets.

“This project is an important step in strengthening connectivity resilience in Romania,” said Olena Lutsenko, Business Development Director at RETN.

“Bucharest and Iași are rapidly developing hubs for business, education and technology, and demand for resilient, high-capacity infrastructure is rising fast. By delivering a direct route from Timișoara to Bucharest and onward to Chișinău, we are enabling faster, more scalable access to the region from the Balkans, Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe in general - for operators, ISPs, enterprises and international customers,” Lutsenko said.

The route gives RETN another way to connect traffic flows between the Balkans and markets further east. In practice, operators seeking alternatives to existing paths can route traffic through Romania and Moldova instead of relying solely on more established corridors.

Romania has emerged as an important network market in the region because of strong fibre adoption and rising internet use. Moldova and Ukraine also sit on strategically important transit paths for regional and international traffic, making cross-border network design more significant for carriers serving the area.

The expansion underlines the continued build-out of communications infrastructure across Eastern and South-Eastern Europe as operators add redundancy and support growing data volumes. It also reflects the importance of Bucharest, Iași and Chișinău on the wider map of regional connectivity.