Bay of Bengal Gateway consortium chooses Alcatel-Lucent for 100G undersea cable system

A consortium that comprises Vodafone Group, Dialog Axiata, Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (Etisalat), Reliance Jio Infocomm, Omantel, and Telekom Malaysia has signed a turn-key contract with Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) for construction of the Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG) undersea fiber-optic cable system. The new submarine cable system, scheduled to be in service by the end of 2014, will support 100-Gbps traffic from the start to connect Oman, the United Arab Emirates, India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia.

The 8000-km Bay of Bengal Gateway submarine fiber-optic network will feature landing points in Barka (Oman), Fujairah (United Arab Emirates), Mumbai and Chennai (India), Ratmalana (Sri Lanka), Penang (Malaysia), and Singapore.

“BBG, the first system to be lit as 100G on Day 1, will be a step change in capacity on this important route,” asserts Edward West, chairman of the BBG Interim Procurement Group. “The bandwidth, resilience, and traffic routing of the BBG configuration, and Alcatel-Lucent’s capabilities and track record, give us the confidence that this system will be able to address the fast-evolving expectations of our customers in line with their demands.”

Alcatel-Lucent will supply its Advanced Coherent technology, including soft-decision forward error correction (SDFEC), in the form of its 1620 Light Manager submarine line terminal as well as an advanced branching unit. The systems house also will install the fiber cable and repeaters, then provide end-to-end submarine network management system. Alcatel-Lucent will also be in charge of project management, system design, marine operations, and system commissioning.

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