Indian telecoms firm Reliance Jio has announced the launch of its 8,100km Bay of Bengal Gateway cable system, which it claims is the first dark fibre system to be lit at 100 Gbps.
The cable system, which has been put together by a consortium that also includes Dialog Axiata, Etisalat, Omantel, Telekom Malaysia and Vodafone, will interconnect with existing cable systems to boost connectivity in the country.
The Bay of Bengal Gateway system utilises high-speed fibre optic technology and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM), which allows for its capacity to be increased at will without any additional submarine intervention. Its initial equipped capacity is 9Tb/s, while it has a design capacity of 55Tb/s.
“We are excited about the launch of BBG as it offers not just direct connectivity in and out of India through Chennai and Mumbai but also acts as a state-of-the-art 100Gbps extension of Jio’s 100Gbps core network,” said Reliance Jio president Mathew Oommen.
“This global connectivity brings key international content hubs closer to our customers, delivering a much richer experience as an important part of driving India’s broadband adoption, enabling consumers to shift away from the current high-cost low value propositions.”
The aim of the cable system is to provide low latency connectivity and support bandwidth growth between the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and Southeast Asia. It lands in India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, while a terrestrial network runs from Malaysia to Singapore points of presence (PoPs).
