Bharti Airtel has taken another step towards establishing itself as a global player with the lighting of the Europe-India Gateway (EIG) cable.
The 15,000 km cable is the first direct high-bandwidth optical cable linking London to Mumbai, and advances Bharti’s expansion efforts in the Middle East, being routed through a host of markets in the region.
The cable, which offers capacity of 3.84 terabits per second, adds a third Europe-Middle East-India option to Bharti’s locker, running alongside existing IMEWE and SMW4 cables.
Seventeen global carriers including Verizon, AT&T and Cable & Wireless Worldwide have invested $700 million (€507 million) in the EIG cable, which Ajay Chitkara, chief of Bharti’s global data business, expects to help establish India as a preferred transit hub for carriers in the region.
“The extra capacity and reliability provided by EIG will help us to meet the surging bandwidth requirements witnessed by the Middle East and Africa,” Chitkara states.