Three Gulf telecom operators, UKs Vodafone form consortium

(MENAFN- Arab News) Three Gulf telecom operators and Britain's Vodafone have formed a consortium to launch 1,400 kilometres fibre network that will meet rising demand for broadband connectivity in the region. The initial phase of the project is estimated to be $36 million to connect the region, but will cost more significantly when the cable will go to Europe, telecom operators said at a news conference in Dubai on Monday. The system, to be called the Middle East-Europe Terrestrial System (Meets) - was both conceived and co-promoted by du, Vodafone, Zain and Zajil. It will be completed in the first quarter of next year. "It's an equal partnership between all the parties," Mahesh Jaishankar, vice president at du, told Khaleej Times. Du will be the landing party for the cable, which will run from Fujairah on the east coast of the UAE. "The objective is to create better customer experience and better connectivity in the region. It's about how more inter-regional connectivity can happen. This will create much larger connectivity inside the region," Jaishankar explained. Meets is designed to be an economically and technically competitive alternative for connectivity within the Gulf; it will also enable a terrestrial route to Europe for reduced latency and higher reliability. Carriers will be able to access Meets from the Fujairah Landing Station or at the carrier neutral hub datamena. "Customers in the Middle East today have ever-increasing high speed data needs as it is becoming an integral part of today's lifestyle. The announcement of Meets with like-minded visionary partners is a step towards realising this need. We are proud to be part of this joint effort that will eventually benefit millions of internet users and telecom customers over a wide geography spanning the Middle East and Europe," du CEO Osman Sultan said. The cable network will have estimated capacity of 2,300 gigabytes per second (gbps). Total GCC countries usage is estimated to be about 500 gbps at present. "It should be by first quarter of next year all over the places. It's within the region and not yet extended. Each of us will play our role. Our cooperation in Saudi [Arabia] will be involved, Zain operation and our operation in Bahrain will cooperate, in Qatar there is Vodafone, and in Kuwait there is Zajil and us to cooperate," Henri Kassab, group director of International Wholesale and Roaming, Zain Group, explained to this scribe.