BBG consortium launches submarine cable linking India, SE Asia, ME

The Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG) Consortium – comprising telecoms operators Dialog Axiata of Sri Lanka, Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman’s Omantel, Reliance Jio Infocomm (India), Telekom Malaysia and UK-based Vodafone – has announced the launch of the 8,100km BBG submarine cable linking Malaysia and Singapore to Oman and the UAE, with additional branches to India and Sri Lanka. The BBG system will provide diversity to existing South East Asia-India-Middle East-Europe routes, including IMEWE, EIG and i2i Cable Network (i2icn). The new fibre-optic submarine cable – which is claimed to be the ‘first dark fibre system to be lit at 100G’ – uses dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology and boasts a design capacity of 55Tbps, with initial equipped capacity of 9Tbps. The cable promises enhanced reliability as the marine route design avoids the Malacca Strait and other cable-cut prone areas with diverse terrestrial connection directly to two Singapore PoPs. The cable also utilises a Digital Line Section (DLS) based model, which ensures that no portion of the capacity needs to be reserved for congestion, while also allowing each member of the consortium to carry out upgrades when and where required.