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Tata Communications, one of India’s leading companies & one of the largest converged telecoms operators globally has signed  strategic partnership agreements with several of the major telecommunications operators in the Middle East to construct a new cable system in the Gulf.

The new cable will connect the region directly to the world’s major business hubs and city centres via the Tata Global Network (TGN).

The partners, Bahrain Internet Exchange in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Nawras of Oman, Qatar Telecom of Qatar, Mobily of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia & Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates will each be the exclusive landing party for the TGN Gulf cable system in their respective geographies. The cable &the relationships with the landing parties will be further developed to provide an extended VAS product portfolio for both local & global enterprise customers in what is rapidly becoming the fastest growing market for new telecoms services.

Vinod Kumar, President and COO of  Tata Communications, said: “This partnership with the top operators in the Middle East to build the TGN Gulf cable system underscores our aspirations to be a key player in the emerging markets space. Each of these partnerships will create mutual benefits that will multiply steadily as companies in the Middle East expand out to the rest of the world and as global MNCs seek connectivity to expand their operations to this fast growing region.”

The TGN-Gulf cable system and its associated worldwide reach provide new dimensions to the infrastructure and unique service capabilities for each of the partners. Using their own cable station, each party will have access to a new high-speed route to the globe & bring in much needed resilience and diversity to the local networkk infrastructure in each country. Consumers in the Gulf region are set to enjoy real benefit, as the extra capacity will enable expansion in broadband penetration, internet usage & enterprise applications in each market served.

The total length of the cable system within the Gulf region will stretch nearly 5,000 km, spanning the Arabian Sea from Mumbai through to Oman and onto Kuwait. The segment will connect to Tata Communications’ global cable and backhaul network, which is one of the largest in the world. Building and installing the global submarine cable will take approximately 22 months, on completion, the cable will provide at least 1.28 TBit/s of additional international connectivity in the region.

This is a great follow on from Tata (NYSE: TCL), as they have already committed to the SEACOM project in East Africa, which links South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania & Kenya to India & also Europe. By adding the Gulf circuit to the West bound cable, which lands in Marseille, the Gulf operators taking part will increase their access significantly. With many Gulf nations looking past hydrocarbon based economies to service lead, network infrastructure is one of the basic building blocks that they must get right.