Airtel gets India leg of Gulf Bridge's India–Middle East–Europe submarine cable

Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecommunications services provider, has entered into an agreement to acquire the India leg of cloud service provider Gulf Bridge International's India-Middle East-Europe submarine cable. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Airtel will also pick up a significant capacity on GBI's cable system's Middle East-Europe leg. Airtel and GBI have also agreed to formulate joint go-to-market strategy and leverage the footprint of their respective global networks to serve global customers, the company said in a statement.

''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. The agreement offers great synergies to Airtel and GBI as both partners will able to build on eachother's strengths in their respective markets,'' says Ajay Chitkara, director and CEO, Global Voice and Data Business, Bharti Airtel, said.

''This will also complement Airtel's existing global network spanning 250,000 route kms with presence in 50 countries and contribute to our vision of serving customers with a future ready network that is built on cutting-edge technology,'' he added.

Following the deal, Airtel now has capacities – both owned and leased - on multiple international submarine cable systems and offers the maximum number of routes between India and Europe.

GBI's cable asset will complement Airtel's existing global network such as IMEWE, EIG, SMW4 and MENA and add significant long-term bandwidth capacity, enabling it to serve the booming data demand across emerging markets like India and Africa.

GBI is a multilayer terrestrial and sub-sea cable meshed network bridges the East to the West through the Middle East, empowers businesses, connects societies and contributes to the region's transformation towards knowledge-based economies.

Its agility, business innovation and diverse portfolio of services make it a partner of choice for carriers, ISPs, governments, and the smart living ecosystem.