Bharti Airtel and Gulf Bridge International (GBI) have announced an agreement concerning GBI's India-Middle East-Europe submarine cable system. Airtel will acquire ownership of the Indian leg of the cable and will also pick up significant capacity on the Middle East-Europe leg.
Airtel and GBI have also agreed to formulate joint go-to-market strategies and use the footprint of their respective networks to serve global customers. Airtel now has large capacities, both owned and leased, on several international submarine cable systems, and offers the maximum number of routes between India and Europe.
GBI’s submarine cable asset will complement Airtel’s existing cable network including IMEWE, EIG, SMW4 and MENA, and add significant, long-term bandwidth capacity, enabling it to serve booming data demand in emerging markets like India and Africa.
