Six of the region's leading operators have signed a construction and maintenance agreement to build a multi-terabit cable system, according to a report of the UAE news agency WAM. The Regional Cable Network (RCN) stretches from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria into Europe. It will provide robust bandwidth connectivity for the region's growing broadband community. It will also provide greater diversity for each of the operators and protect their service from disruption from damage to undersea cable systems. Etisalat (UAE), Mobily (Saudi Arabia), Jordan Telecom (Jordan), Zain - Mada coalition (Jordan) and Syrian Telecom (Syria) together with other European partners have joined forces to build the mammoth 4,000 km diversified cable system which will provide reliable telecommunication and Internet connectivity for all users in these and the surrounding countries. The announcement was made at a signing ceremony held at the Atlantis Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, WAM reported. Mohamed Omran, Chairman of Etisalat, said: “RCN is an important development in the history of the Internet in the Middle East. It is the first terabit, terrestrial cable that connects Europe with the region and will provide extra capacity to help fulfill the expected future need which will be fuelled by broadband growth, multimedia applications and video. We are keen to support this initiative which will no doubt cater for the future needs of the telecom sector.” The regional cable network runs terrestrially uninterrupted from Fujaira in the United Arab Emirates, passing through Saudi National Fibre optic Network in the Kingdom, then through Jordan and Syria, and finally reaching Turkey and Europe, providing a reliable and trusted data communication cable with terabits of bandwidth available for the decades to come” said Mobily's Abdulaziz Altamami.
