Gulf Bridge International

Gulf Bridge International

Type	Private
Website	www.gbiinc.com

Gulf Bridge International (GBI) is the Middle East’s first privately owned submarine cable system linking Gulf countries on a self healing ring to each other and onwards to Europe, Africa and Asia. It is deploying state of the art submarine technology which provides the region with greatly enhanced connectivity.^[1]

History

Incorporated in December 2008, GBI started production and deployment of the ‘Gulf Ring’^[2] – a "high speed, subsea cable system" connecting Arabian Gulf countries together and integrated into the larger GBI Cable System (GBICS) which has onward East and West links to Europe, Africa and Asia.^[3] The high capacity demand from the Middle East and lack of diversity/resilience (as witnessed by the cable outages of 2008.^[4]) were large driving factors for the establishment of GBI.

Market Growth

Between 2005 and 2010 the Middle East was the fastest growing region globally in terms of demand for bandwidth and capacity usage. This demand is forecast to double every three years over the course of the next decade, being driven by several factors:

• Opening up of the regional telecom markets to competition which has stimulated an unprecedented increase in the use of mobile and broadband internet services.
• Government initiatives around the Arabian Gulf to lessen dependence on carbon based industries and diversify their investments to include other sectors, have increased the demand for superior levels of international connectivity from sectors such as Finance and Media.^[5]

Present

Since its establishment, the business has been validated, both by the participation of new regional investors and telecom operators looking for a new business model; and the infrastructure to enable them to provide new applications and services.^[6][7]

It currently has landing stations (agreed/built) in:

• Qatar^[8]
• UAE^[9]
• Iran^[10]
• Iraq - This was a major first by GBI, as it placed the first ever submarine cable connecting Iraq to the world.^[11]

• Kuwait^[12]
• Bahrain^[13]
• Oman^[14]

• Saudi Arabia^[15]
• Mazara^[16]
• Mumbai^[17]

Products

GBI products include a full suite of wholesale transmission capacity options including:

Synchronous Digital Hierarchy capacities:

• STM-1
• STM-4
• STM-16
• STM-64

Wavelength-division multiplexing product line:

• Unprotected and protected wavelengths at 10 Gbps

Ethernet:

• 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps

Awards

• 2012 Best Niche/New Player - Capacity Europe^[18]
• 2012 Best Technology Investment - CommsMEA^[19]

References

1. Hancock, Stephanie (6 June 2011). "Superfast broadband may help make Qatar new tech hub". BBC Business News. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
2. "Gulf Bridge International and SubCom commence marine operations for GBI Cable System". TeleTimes International. 24 December 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
3. "GBI and Interoute announce network extension partnership" (Press release). Arabian Business Report. 23 September 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
4. "Damaged cables cause internet outages for millions". The Guardian UK. 19 December 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
5. "Non-oil growth in the GCC forecasted to grow 5.1% in the next ten years" (Press release). Qatar Financial Center. 31 October 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
6. "Gulf Bridge International (GBI) Selects Centina Systems as Their End-to-End OSS Solution Provider for Their Sub-Sea Broadband Carrier Network to Provide Outstanding Customer Service" (Press release). Yahoo Finance. 25 May 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
7. "Subsea cable network to upgrade Iraq links". Reuters (Press release). Reuters. 28 November 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
8. "Gulf Bridge International and Vodafone Qatar Announce Successful Cable Landing" (Press release). Business Wire. 20 March 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
9. "Gulf Bridge International completes its first cable landing in UAE". Reuters (Press release). 15 March 2011.
10. "TIC, Gulf Bridge International Agree to land GBI's submarine cable in Iran". Al Bawaba. 27 April 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
11. "GBI lands first subsea cable in Iraq". Trade Arabia. 17 January 2012. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
12. "Kuwait National Technology Enterprises Ongoing Projects". Kuwait National Technology Enterprises. 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
13. "Gulf Bridge International (GBI) signs with to Batelco to Land GBI's Sub-Sea Cable System in the Kingdom of Bahrain" (Press release). Bloomberg. 7 March 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
14. "Gulf Bridge International, Omantel sign agreement to land GBI's sub-sea cable system in Oman" (Press release). Submarine Telecoms Forum. 10 May 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
15. "Gulf Bridge International (GBI) and the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) Announce the Landing of GBI's Submarine Cable in the East Coast of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.". Reuters (Press release). 28 February 2010.
16. "GBI and Tinet Partner Together to Extend GBI's Middle East and Asian Connectivity Into Europe and to Offer Tinet's Global IP and Ethernet Services in the Gulf Area" (Press release). Market Wire. 15 November 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
17. "Sify Technologies in pact with Gulf Bridge International". The Times Of India. 25 May 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
18. "Capacity Awards 2012". Capacity Magazine. 10 February 2013. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
19. "MEA telcos lauded at CommsMEA Awards". CommsMEA. 5 December 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2013.

External links

• Official website