Indian operator acquires subsea cable

Details: Category: Optical & Fixed Networks; 08 March 2018; 3036 views

Bharti Airtel is to acquire the Indian leg of Gulf Bridge International's subsea data cabling network.

This network currently links India, the Middle East and Europe. Airtel will also acquire large amounts of capacity in the Middle Eastern section of the cable as part of the deal.

"We are delighted to announce this agreement with GBI. With this, we are adding a large capacity to meet the growing data, content demand in markets like India as well as serve the connectivity needs of global carriers and enterprise customers,” said Ajay Chitkara, director and CEO for Bharti Airtel.

“The agreement offers great synergies to Airtel and GBI as both partners will able to build on each other’s strengths in their respective markets. This will also complement Airtel’s existing global network spanning 250,000 kms,” he added.

Bharti Airtel and GBI have also agreed to formulate joint Go to Market strategies and leverage the footprint of their respective global networks to serve customers worldwide.

“We are committed to build a sustainable network in partnership with global leaders, with an ultimate goal to offer the best user experience to our partners and end-users,” Abdulla Al Rwaili, Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director of GBI said.

Bharti Airtel has over 300 million customers in 20 countries across southern and eastern Asia. The acquisition marks an opportunity for the Indian telecoms firm to own a greater portion of the telecoms revenue generated by the huge volumes of data that pass through its networks.