Airtel, other telcos launch gateway linking India, Europe

Telecom service provider Bharti airtel along with 16 other global telcos today launched the Europe India Gateway (EIG) cable system that will enhance diversity and capacity between Europe and India.

The 15,000 km cable has received investment of around $700 million and has a capacity of 3.84 terabits per second, Bharti airtel said in a statement.

EIG stretches from Mumbai in India to London UK, with landings enroute in UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Monaco and Marseilles, Gibraltar, Portugal and the UK. Apart from the segment of EIG in Egypt, the remaining cable is now available for commercial use, the release added.

This will allow Bharti airtel to offer enhanced redundancy and network resilience to the customers in India, West Asia and Asia Pacific region.

The deployment of EIG will also boost the connectivity requirements of the African continent by complementing the largest existing submarine cable in Africa, the EASSy cable in which airtel has investments.

When fully activated with the Egypt link, the EIG will be the first direct high-bandwidth optical fiber system from the UK to India.

The EIG Consortium members are: AT&T, Bharti airtel, BT, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Cable&Wireless Worldwide, Djibouti Telecom, du, Gibtelecom, Libyan Post, Telecom and Information Technology Company, MTN Group, Omantel, PT Comunicações, SA, Saudi Telecom Company, Telecom Egypt, Telkom SA and Verizon.

"It has been our endeavor at Bharti airtel to create flexible and robust under sea cable infrastructure for our customers.

The extra capacity and reliability provided by EIG will help us to meet the surging bandwidth requirements witnessed by the Middle East and Africa," Bharti airtel CEO –Global Data Business Ajay Chitkara said.