UK-India - undersea cable

Telecom Giants Unveil India-Europe Plan

The Europe India Gateway high-bandwidth cable system will cost more than $700 million and will have at least 16 partners

A construction and maintenance agreement to build the first direct, high-bandwidth optical-fibre submarine cable system from the UK to India, has been signed by 16 telecomms companies.

Verizon Business, a provider of advanced communications and IT solutions and a unit of Verizon Communications, said the Europe India Gateway cable system will cost over $700 million and will significantly enhance capacity and diversity between the countries of these regions.

The companies investing in the project are AT&T, Bharti Airtel, BT, Cable &Wireless, Djibouti Telecom, Du, Gibtelecom, IAM, Libyan Post, Telecom and Information Technology Company, MTN Group, Omantel, PT Comunicacoes, Saudi Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telkom and Verizon Business.

According to Verizon, the gateway is a 15,000km system connecting three continents, with 13 landings planned in the UK, Portugal, Gibraltar, Morocco, Monaco, France, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman, United Arab Emirates and India.

It is expected to be operational in the second quarter of 2010 and will also provide interconnection with other main cable systems connecting Europe, Africa, Asia and North America.

The system will reportedly use next-generation technology designed to provide up to 3.84Tbps using dense wavelength division multiplexing to provide upgradeable transmission facilities supporting internet, e-commerce, video, data and voice services.

The cable system will also provide diversity for broadband traffic which currently relies mostly on traditional routes from Europe to India and will help meet present and future telecomms traffic growth.

The EIG Consortium has also signed a supply contract with Alcatel-Lucent and Tyco Telecommunications for the cable system's construction.