| Bharti
Airtel joins global telcos to build Europe-India
cable system |
| | | Indiantelevision.com
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(7 May 2008 6:00 pm)
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NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel has signed up with
15 global telecommunications majors to build
the Europe-India Gateway (EIG) cable system.
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A
formal construction and maintenance agreement
was signed in London recently to build the
first direct, high-bandwidth optical-fiber
submarine cable system from India to United
Kingdom. Costing more than $700 million,
it will significantly enhance capacity and
diversity to connect India to the Middle
East and Europe. The 15,000-kilometer cable
system will connect 13 countries across
three continents and is expected to carry
commercial traffic by the second quarter
of 2010.
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Airtel
will operate the cable landing station in
Mumbai. 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 Comunicações-S.A,
Saudi Telecom Company, Telecom Egypt, Telkom
SA Ltd, and Verizon Business.
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 EIG consortium
has signed construction and supply agreements
with Alcatel-Lucent and Tyco Telecommunications.
According to Bharti Airtel Enterprise Services
president David Nishball, “There is a
tremendous rise in use of data and broadband
applications among enterprises and consumers
globally, and India is no exception. Whether
it is large enterprises leveraging communications
technologies to compete in a truly global
environment or consumers seeking real-time
entertainment over the internet, international
connectivity has become a vital part of our
lives.”
Beyond the Airtel cable landing station in
India, additional cable landings will be provided
in United Kingdom, Portugal, Gibraltar, Morocco,
Monaco, France, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
Djibouti, Oman and United Arab Emirates. The
EIG cable system will also provide seamless
interconnection with other major cable systems
connecting Europe, Africa, Asia and North
America.
In addition to complementing existing high
bandwidth cable systems in the region, the
EIG cable system will provide much needed
diversity for broadband traffic currently
relying largely on traditional routes from
Europe to India. The EIG cable system, with
its large bandwidth and high quality transmission
technology, will help meet the present and
future growth in telecommunications traffic
between the targeted regions.
Airtel currently has two international landing
stations in Chennai that connect its two existing
submarine cable systems - i2i to Singapore
and SEA-ME-WE-4 - to Europe and is building
an additional cable landing station in Mumbai
to land the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable. |
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