Europe India Gateway (EIG)
Owners:
18 companies
Landing points
Total length15,000 km
Design capacity3.84 terabits per second
Date of first useFebruary 2011 (February 2011)

Europe India Gateway (EIG) is a submarine communications cable system that connects the U.K., Portugal, Gibraltar, Monaco, France, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and India.[1]

Organization and owners

The EIG is approximately 15,000 kilometres long.[1] It was initially designed to deliver up to 3.84 terabits per second[2] but was upgraded in 2015 and 2020. The cable system was built by both Alcatel-Lucent[2] and TE Subcom (formerly known as Tyco) and was scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2010.[2] The cable cost $700 million to build, going live in 2011.[3] The EIG was the first direct high-bandwidth optical fibre system from Britain to India.

The investors in EIG was a consortium of 18 telecoms companies,[4] including: AT&T; Bharti Airtel; BT Group; Cable & Wireless Worldwide; Djibouti Telecom; Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co. (du); Gibtelecom; IAM; Libyan Post Telecommunications & Information Technology Company; Mauritius Telecom; Monaco Telecom; MTN Group; Omantel, PT Comunicações, S.A.; Saudi Telecom Company; Telecom Egypt; Telkom SA, and Verizon Business.

Cable landing points

EIG has cable landing points at:[5][6]

In February 2020, Ciena announced it had completed a major upgrade to the cable to boost capacity for international business traffic, adding 24.3Tbit/s of information carrying capacity, with a spectral efficiency increase of 52%. The EIG can now transport up to 400Gbit/s per wavelength, driving more capacity per channel at longer distances.[10]

Outages and incidents

In March 2013, the EIG cable was cut near Egypt.[11] A few days later the I-ME-WE and SEA-ME-WE 4 cable was also cut near Egypt, supposedly by divers.[12]

In February 2018, The Sunday Times reported that the infrastructure for the UK landing site of the Apollo, GLO-1 and Europe India Gateway cables had been found almost entirely unprotected. Their reporter was able to reach the premises without being challenged, and found the door to the generator room unlocked and left ajar. Vodafone, who manage the facility, said that he had not reached critical equipment and "would not have been able to interrupt the operation of the facility."[13]

See also

Other cable systems following a substantially similar route are:

References

  1. 1 2 "Sixteen Telcos Invest $700M In EIG Cable System" (Press release). Lloyd's / Dow Jones Newswires. 2008-05-07. Archived from the original on 2009-10-01. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
  2. 1 2 3 "Alcatel-Lucent to Help Build Underwater EIG Cable". Technology Marketing Corporation. 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
  3. ↑ Europe-India Gateway submarine cable launched Deccan Herald, Feb 24, 2011
  4. ↑ "du invests in $700m Europe India Gateway undersea cable system" (Press release). du. 2008-05-08. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  5. ↑ "Europe India Gateway main web page". Archived from the original on 2010-09-24. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  6. ↑ EIG on Greg's Cable Map
  7. ↑ "India to get first direct cable link to the UK". iTWire. 2008-05-07. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
  8. ↑ "Du joins submarine cable consortium". Egypt.com. 2008-05-09. Archived from the original on 2009-09-14. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
  9. ↑ "Seamless Interconnection". Telecom and Networking Communications Today/ADI Media Pvt. Ltd. 2008-10-23. Archived from the original on 2009-09-14. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
  10. ↑ "The EIG increases capacity using Ciena's GeoMesh solution". Omnisperience. 19 February 2020.
  11. ↑ Cable snap off Egypt coast to slow down internet traffic ENS Economic Bureau : New Delhi, Sat Mar 30 2013
  12. ↑ Kirk, Jeremy (2013-03-27). Sabotage suspected in Egypt submarine cable cut. ComputerWorld, 27 March 2013
  13. ↑ Gabriel Pogrund (4 February 2018). "Data-cable security scandal: It's easier to enter than a public library". The Sunday Times. p. 9.
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