“Telkom's primary use for the capacity purchased on EIG will be to extend SAT-3 from Portugal to London on the company's own capacity rather than leasing. It will also extend Eassy from Djibouti to France/UK, once the Egypt crossing is completed,” notes Telkom.

EIG spans 15 000km and stretches from Mumbai, in India, to London, UK, with landings en route in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Monaco, Marseilles, Gibraltar, Portugal and the UK. Apart from the segment of EIG in Egypt, the remaining cable is now available for commercial use.

When fully activated with the Egypt link, the EIG will be the first direct high-bandwidth optical fibre system from the UK to India. In addition to complementing existing high-bandwidth cable systems in the region, the EIG will provide much needed diversity for broadband traffic, which currently relies on traditional routes from Europe to India.

The EIG Consortium members are: AT&T; Bharti Airtel; BT; Bharat Sanchar Nigam; Cable&Wireless Worldwide; Djibouti Telecom; du; Gibtelecom; Libyan Post, Telecom and Information Technology Company; MTN Group; Omantel; PT Comunicações, SA; Saudi Telecom Company; Telecom Egypt; Telkom SA; and Verizon.