Tata Communications on Tuesday said it will invest $200 million in the Tata Global Network (TGN) Gulf cable system over the next two years. The investment will enable the firm to extend its portfolio to services such as global ethernet, MPLS-based VPN, managed security, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and global telepresence.
These services are seeing increasing demand from local as well as global enterprises, which are expanding in the emerging market region, the firm said.
The company will also be building a new connectivity network in the region as part of the TGN Gulf Project with partners like Bahrain Internet Exchange in Bahrain, Nawras of Oman, Qatar Telecom of Qatar, Mobily of Saudi Arabia and Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates. Each of these partners would be an exclusive landing party for the TGN Gulf cable system.
This new cable system, which started in October 2009 and is expected to be completed by 2011, will connect the region to the rest of the world via the TGN and provide high-speed bandwidth to all the key cities of the world. The TGN Gulf cable system would act as a gateway to the TGN network and will provide infrastructure and service capabilities of each of the partners. Using its own cable station, each party will have access to a high-speed route to the globe. The capacity will also help to support the continued expansion in broadband penetration, Internet usage and enterprise applications in each market. Vinod Kumar, president and COO of Tata Communication, said, the firm considered West Asia as a crucial building block in the ?Emerging Markets? strategy. ?Along with our partners, we are confident of creating sustained mutual benefits while serving global and West Asia with a unique service portfolio,? he said.