Qatar Telecom (Qtel) and Gulf Bridge International (GBI), the region’s first privately owned submarine cable operator, have signed an agreement that will see Qtel provide a landing station for GBI’s cable in Qatar.

The landing party agreement (LPA) will enable GBI to land a connection in Qatar to the GBI Cable System, which will connect all the countries of the Gulf region to each other and provide onward connectivity to Europe and Asia.

This network will not only improve connectivity, but provide the foundations for the introduction of next generation communication technology.
 
“By connecting Qatar to this new global Cable System, we are layering an additional level of resilience to the existing infrastructure to enable and maintain seamless and un-interrupted communication across the world. Additionally, the superior capacity provided by this new partnership is a big step towards realising our vision to make Qatar one of the best connected countries in the world,” said Dr Nasser Marafih, chief executive officer, Qtel.

“Our partnership will allow Qtel to offer the customers even more diversity and resilience and will give Qatar infrastructure required to attract additional foreign investment,” added Ahmed Mekky, board member and chief executive of GBI.

Scheduled to launch in 2011 and designed to operate for up to 25 years, the GBI Cable System will connect all the Gulf countries via a core ring, which can re-route traffic thereby increasing resilience.

With a design capacity of up to five terabits per second on certain cable sections, the GBI Cable System will have the capability to meet the rapid growth in demand that has been forecast for traffic originating and terminating in the Gulf.-TradeArabia News Service