A construction and maintenance agreement to build the first direct, fibre optic submarine cable system between the UK to India, has been signed by 16 telecoms companies.
A Telecomworldwide report quoted Verizon Business saying that the Europe India Gateway cable system will cost over €456.91 million (US$700 million) and will increase 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 technology designed to provide up to 3.84Tbps using dense wavelength division multiplexing.