Tata said the cable will be the first in its network to serve the Gulf; offering access to UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, providing its customers and carriers with a route into the rapidly emerging markets of the region. Kumar believes an interconnection between the Gulf system to the Tata Global Network (TGN) means the Middle East is “given much needed diversity that it has so far lacked”.
The company revealed it has also now completed a worldwide fibre optic cable network connection, after announcing the launch of the TGN Eurasia cable (TGN-EA), connecting Europe to India through Egypt. Kumar revealed it has made an investment of approximately $800 million in the worldwide ring, which Tata claims is a world first.
He believes a global network serves for a range of businesses which need global interconnection, to “compete in global markets and they are now demanding faster and more reliable worldwide connectivity”.
Tata’s global ring complements, and coincides with the launch of the TGN-Gulf cable which spans from the Gulf to Mumbai, India, across Tata’s global network, offering speeds of up to 10Gbps. Like most new cables, there is a specific focus on providing business critical capacity for broadband and data services. The new system launch, according to Tata, will provide a “critical backbone for economic development”.
“The TGN-Gulf subsea cable system will act as the foundation for growth and technological innovation for businesses in one of the fastest growing emerging markets in the world,” added Radwan Moussalli, MD, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at Tata.
Tata’s cable launch in the Gulf comes just over a month after the Middle East’s first privately owned cable, Gulf Bridge International, went live.
