by NR INDRAN / INT
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Raju Vegesna, CEO and Managing Director, Sify Technologies, said, “Sify is being increasingly recognised as a leading integrated ICT (Information & Communication Technology) company and this cable landing station is an important milestone in our journey. We now look forward to partnering telecom service providers and playing a larger active role in the communication revolution that is unfolding in the Asia Pacific region, Middle East and Africa. With capacity to land additional submarine cable systems, this connectivity will open a larger market for our industry-leading Managed Enterprise and Data Centre Services in the Middle Eastern market.
With the opening of this landing station, Gulf Bridge International (GBI) becomes the first to land their sub-sea cable system in India. This cable system will provide telecom operators and communications companies, both in India and across the globe greater choice and resilience. With a capacity of up to 10 terabits per second on certain cable sections, this system is designed to accommodate the rapid growth in voice and rich media traffic (internet, telephony and video) originating from and terminating in the Middle East as well as the African and European markets.
Commenting on today’s milestone, Mr. Ahmed Mekky, Board Member and CEO of Gulf Bridge International, said, “We would like to congratulate Sify on the successful opening of this cable landing station. We forecast a significant increase in the demand for international bandwidth between the Middle East and Asia, driven by the favourable demographics and increasing economic strength in both regions. This landing station and the GBI cable will become the leading gateway between these markets.”
On the occasion, Sify also signed a Landing Party Agreement (LPA) with MENA Submarine Cable System S.A.E, a licensed telecommunications operator in the Egypt. MENA cable spans over three continents (Europe, Africa and Asia). Initially it lands in Italy, Egypt, KSA, Oman, and India with expansion plans to service more African and European countries. MENA-SCS is a six pairs fibre cable, where each pair is designed for expansion up to 96 wavelengths multiplied by 10Gb/s for each which means an ultimate capacity of 5.76Tb/s and further scope to upgrade to 100G/S technology to have capacity more than 5 times current capacities.
Mr. Ahmed Khalaf, Managing Director MENA Submarine Cable System said, “We are proud to partner with Sify in India. By Landing with SIFY, we believe that MENA will be able to connect India to Europe with its express fiber link in order to serve the growing demand on the Indian market. As a private investment and ownership, MENA will be able to show fast, flexible and professional offerings where our strategy is to provide unique services in the market to India, Asia, Middle East, and Europe customers.
You can contact author @ nr_indran@rediffmail.com