Undersea cable to prevent repeat of net night

UAE telecom Du’s investment in the Europe India Gateway (EIG) undersea cable system will prevent a re-occurrence of the major internet problems suffered in the Middle East earlier this year, the company’s CEO said on Sunday. Du last week announced it was part of a global consortium that would build a $700 million submarine cable system between India and the UK.

Europe India Gateway, a 15,000-kilometre, high-bandwidth optical-fibre system connecting 13 countries across three continents, will be constructed by a group of 16 global telecommunications firms and will carry video, data and voice traffic.Speaking to local radio station Dubai Eye, Osman Sultan said the investment would offer Du more capacity and greater disaster recovery capability.

“One of the main reasons for Du to get into the consortium is to build resilience, and lose our dependence on Flag’s Falcon cable, which is not enough [capacity] and makes us more fragile such as the case earlier this year,” Sultan told the radio station.

India’s Flag Telecom owns two of the four cables that were damaged at the end of January, causing weeks of disruption to internet and international telecoms services across much of the Middle East and Asia.