First direct cable from the UK to India launched

The first undersea fibre-optic cable to stretch from India to the UK was launched yesterday.

A consortium of 17 telecommunications companies including BT, AT&T, Bharti Airtel and Telecom Egypt invested $700 million in the Europe India Gateway. The 15,000 km cable runs from Mumbai under the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, up the coasts of Portugal, Spain and France to London.

The consortium says that the cable, which supports data transfer rates of up to 3.84 terabits per second, will improve both the capacity and resilience of network connections between India and Europe, by providing an alternative route to the South East Asia, Middle East, Western Europe (SEA ME WE) cable, which runs from Singapore to France. This may benefit businesses that outsource IT work to the subcontinent.

It is also designed to enhance network services in North Africa and the Middle East.

The Europe India Gateway is now commercially operational in all the connected countries, except Egypt.

Pete Swabey

Pete Swabey

Pete was Editor of Information Age and head of technology research for Vitesse Media plc from 2005 to 2013, before moving on to be Senior Editor and then Editorial Director at The Economist Intelligence...

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