Omantel signs deal for fibre optics cable

Muscat: Omantel has signed an agreement with Egypt's Middle East and North Africa (Mena) Company, effectively positioning the sultanate as a regional hub for international telecom traffic.

Announcing the deal on Friday, Omantel said the agreement was signed by its chief executive Dr. Mohammad Bin Ali Al Wohaibi and Dr. Nagi Anees, director of the Mena Cable Project.

It paves the way for the landing of a key fibre optics submarine cable on the sultanate's coast, thereby opening a new gateway for international telecom traffic covering voice, data, internet, video and e-commerce.

Importantly, the project will also provide an alternative channel for telecom traffic should submarine cable cuts, of the kind that led to widespread internet disruptions earlier this year, occur within the Mena region.

The $400 million Mena Cable Project, which is implemented by the Mena Company - an affiliate of Orascom Telecom - will connect a number of countries in the region.

The 8,000km cable, which will offer a total capacity of 5.7 terabits, will pass through Oman, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India. The cable will land on Oman's shores at Seeb in Muscat in the third quarter of next year.

Omantel's cable landing centre at Seeb is a hub for submarine fibre optic cables that connect the sultanate with the rest of the world.

The company recently joined 15 other international telecom operators in signing the Europe-India Gateway project for the construction of an international broadband fibre optics submarine cable extending from the United Kingdom to India and passing through Oman and several other countries en route.

The $700 million project will cater to a massive increase in projected telecom traffic in the booming economies of Asia and Europe.

The sultanate, by virtue of its strategic location at the crossroads of the Gulf, Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, has become a major landing point for the global cable networks, including FLAG (Falcon), SMW3 and TWA1.