Omantel, a leading telecom of Oman and Multinet Pakistan, a leading domestic and international carrier in Pakistan, and Xtera Communications, a leader in optical transport solutions, have signed a turnkey supply agreement for the new subsea cable system Silk Route Gateway 1 (SRG-1), a report said.

The new cable will be a direct highway from Muscat in Oman to Karachi in Pakistan, with a future extension to Gwadar in Pakistan, reported Oman Observer.

“SRG-1 is another reflection of our commitment to the global carrier community to offer them with the most efficient routes.  The SRG-1 bridges Asia to Africa and the West through a low latency network and we anticipate this to evolve as the telecom world’s primary access to the region,” Sohail Qadir, vice president, Omantel Wholesale was quoted as saying in the report.

“The SRG-1 project is our ambition to restore the significance of the traditional silk route by establishing a digital gateway to the most budding telecom markets of the Asian subcontinent”, said Rashid Shafi, SEVP & chief strategy officer, Multinet Pakistan.  “This new cable will fuel the massively growing demands of the Pakistani market and will bring up an unprecedented reach to China, Afghanistan and Central Asia.”

“Selecting an innovative technology partner like Xtera is imperative to the overall success of the project.  Xtera brings on board the expertise and professional pedigree to develop an efficient optical submarine network which will enable Multinet and Omantel to offer cutting edge connectivity services to their customers,” SRG-1 Consortium said in a statement.

Xtera will supply its turnkey 100G/100G+ optimized submarine system solution for this new project, including Nu-Wave Optima Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE), undersea optical repeaters, undersea branching units, cable, all marine services, project management, installation and commissioning.

Jon Hopper, president and chief executive officer of Xtera said:  “This new build project represents a second cable project for Xtera in the region after the award of the G2A subsea cable system between Oman, Puntland and Somaliland.”