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The move will help Airtel consolidate its hold on data traffic in the region
Bharti Airtel is to acquire the Indian leg of Gulf Bridge International’s subsea data cabling network, currently linking India, The Middle East and Europe. Airtel will also acquire large amounts of capacity in the Middle Eastern section of the cable as part of the deal.
"We are delighted to announce this agreement with GBI. With this, we are adding a large capacity to meet the growing data, content demand in markets like India as well as serve the connectivity needs of global carriers and enterprise customers,” said Ajay Chitkara, director and CEO for Bharti Airtel.
“The agreement offers great synergies to Airtel and GBI as both partners will able to build on each other’s strengths in their respective markets. This will also complement Airtel’s existing global network spanning 250,000 kms,” he added.
Bharti Airtel has over 300 million customers in 20 countries across southern and eastern Asia. The acquisition marks an opportunity for the Indian telecoms firm to own a greater portion of the telecoms revenue generated by the huge volumes of data that pass through its networks.
