Egypt’s landline operator Telecom Egypt (TE) said in a sta tement Wednesday that they will help construct a US$ 700 million undersea cable s ystem that links Europe, the Middle East and India.
The deal is part of a global consortium.
The statement said that the Europe/India Gateway (EIG) would “significantly enha nce capacity and diversity between the countries of these regions.”
It added that it also would provide interconnection with other cable systems alr eady in place that connect to Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.
TE hopes that the 9,000-mile system will become operational by the second quarte r of 2010 and will link together 13 nations and three continents.
The announcement comes after cables were severed earlier this year that caused I nternet outages across the Middle East and parts of India.
Egypt was without full connection to the Net for almost two weeks.
Companies across the region complained that action was not taken immediately, wh ich threatened major losses.
The new consortium agreement hopes that the cable system will help prevent futur e outages.
