Alcatel-Lucent and a consortium composed of Vodafone Group, Dialog Axiata, Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat), Reliance Jio Infocomm, Omantel and Telekom Malaysia, have signed a turn-key contract to deploy a new 100 Gigabit-per-second (100G) submarine cable system to connect Oman, the United Arab Emirates, India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

The Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG) cable system will enhance the robustness and reliability of international connectivity into and out of the six countries via landing points in Barka (Oman), Fujairah (United Arab Emirates), Mumbai and Chennai (India), Ratmalana (Sri Lanka), Penang (Malaysia) and Singapore.

Commercial operation of the system is planned to start by end of 2014. It will offer an ultra high design capacity, underpinning the continued growth of new applications and services in the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and the Far East.

Edward West, Chairman of the BBG Interim Procurement Group, said: “BBG, the first system to be lit as 100G on day-1 will be a step change in capacity on this important route. The bandwidth, resilience and traffic routing of the BBG configuration, and Alcatel-Lucent’s capabilities and track record, give us the confidence that this system will be able to address the fast-evolving expectations of our customers in line with their demands.”

Philippe Dumont, President of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, said: “We are pleased to deliver to the BBG consortium state-of–the-art technology and solutions that will help them flexibly and reliably manage bandwidth expansion on-demand. As a leader in advanced coherent technology, Alcatel-Lucent’s 100G technology and advances in its branching unit set a new benchmark for the supply of fully robust high capacity systems with a clear upgrade path to higher speeds.”

Press Release, April 30, 2013