MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - India's Bharti Airtel Ltd. said it has
partnered 15 global telecom firms to build a Europe-India Gateway (EIG), a cable
system between India and Britain.
India's leading telecommunications services provider said this first direct,
high-bandwidth optical-fibre sub-marine cable system between India and Britain
will cost more than $700 million and enhance capacity and diversity to connect
India and the Middle East and Europe.
The 9,000-mile cable system will connect 13 countries across three
continents and is expected to carry commercial traffic by the second quarter of
2010, Bharti Airtel said.
The other members of the EIG cable consortium include AT&T, BT, C&W,
Djibouti Telecom, Du, Gibtelecom, IAM, Libyan Telecom, MTN Group Ltd., Omantel,
PT Comunicacoes-S.A., Saudi Telecom Co., Telecom Egypt, Telkom SA Ltd. and
Verizon Business, the company said in a release.
The next generation cable system is designed to provide up to 3.84 terabits
(Tbps) using dense-wavelength-division-multiplexing (DWDM) technology to provide
upgradeable transmission facilities that support Internet, e-commerce, video,
data and voice, the company said.
The EIG consortium has signed construction and supply agreements with
Alcatel-Lucent and Tyco Telecommunications, Bharti Airtel said. It said it will
operate the cable landing station in Mumbai.
Besides the Airtel cable landing station in India, additional cable landings
will be in Britain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Morocco, Monaco, France, Libya, Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, the company said.
The EIG cable system will also provide seamless interconnection with other
major cable systems connecting Europe, Africa, Asia and North America, Bharti
Airtel said.
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