New Submarine Cable between UK and India Planned
By CXOtoday Staff
Mumbai, May 7, 2008

A formal Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) was signed today by a group of telecom majors to build the first direct, high-bandwidth, optical-fiber submarine cable system from the United Kingdom to India. The Europe India Gateway (EIG) cable system will cost close to US $700 million. It's expected to enhance capacity and diversity between the countries of these regions.

Telecommunications companies investing in the project include AT&T, Bharti Airtel, BT, C&W, Djibouti Telecom, Du, Gibtelecom, IAM, Libyan Post, Telecom, and Information Technology Company, MTN Group, Omantel, PT Comunica es, S.A., Saudi Telecom Company, Telecom Egypt, Telkom SA, and Verizon Business.

The EIG cable system, targeted to be operational in second quarter of 2010, is an 15,000 kilometer (9,000 mile) system that will connect 13 countries and 3 continents. Landings are planned in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Gibraltar, Morocco, Monaco, France, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and India. In addition to serving these regions, the EIG cable system will also provide interconnection with other major cable systems connecting Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America.

The system will utilize next generation technology designed to provide up to 2.88 terabits (Tbps) using dense-wavelength-division-multiplexing (DWDM) to provide upgradeable transmission facilities that support Internet, e-commerce, video, data, and voice.

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. This is important considering the threat of earthquakes in this region. The EIG cable system is also expected to help meet the present and future growth in telecommunications traffic between the targeted regions.

In addition to the C&MA signing, the EIG Consortium also signed a supply contract with Alcatel-Lucent and Tyco Telecommunications for the cable system's construction.


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