FLAG Telecom, a US-based provider of international network and communication services, on Tuesday said an undersea cable system connecting 11 countries in the Mideast to India had become operational, REPORTED AP. The new fiber-optic cable system, which cost about $400 million, offers high-speed connectivity and is linked to Flag's global network, said Anil Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Communications, a leading Indian mobile phone and wireless service provider that now owns Flag Telecom. The new 11,859-kilometer network, stretching from Egypt to Oman and India, will carry data at a speed of 2.56 terabits per second, said Ambani. The network offer seamless connectivity to 25 million Reliance phone subscribers in India and the customers of telephone companies from the 11 Mideastern countries partnering the so-called Falcon project. This is the first fiber cable link between India and the Mideast, where more than 3.5 million Indians are employed, and will lead to high levels of trade and commerce in the region, Ambani said. Indian Communication Minister Dayanidhi Maran said the project will enhance bandwidth availability and lower the cost of Internet access. In India, he said, “it will bring healthy competition and robust growth” to the telecommunication sector, he said. Top telecommunication officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain along with their counterparts in India jointly addressed reporters though a video news conference using the Falcon cable system.
