Bharti Airtel, in collaboration with 16 other global telecom companies, announced the launch of Europe India Gateway (EIG) cable system that will enhance bandwidth 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.
EIG stretches from Mumbai to London, with landings en route in the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Monaco & Marseilles, Gibraltar and Portugal. Apart from the segment of EIG in Egypt, the remaining cable is now available for commercial use.
With the launch of EIG, Bharti Airtel added a third cable to its existing infrastructure on India-Middle East-Europe route.
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.
Mr Ajay Chitkara, CEO – Global Data Business, Bharti Airtel, said: “It has been our endeavour at Bharti Airtel to create flexible and robust undersea cable infrastructure for our customers.
Both EIG and IMEWE land in our landing station in Mumbai.
The extra capacity and reliability provided by EIG will help us meet the surging bandwidth requirements witnessed by the Middle East and Africa.”
When fully activated with the Egypt link, the EIG will be the first direct high-bandwidth optical fibre system from the UK to India. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is also part of the consortium.