Gulf Bridge International (GBI), a subsea cable operator owned by Gulf investors, has announced that it has inked a pact with British Telecom to advise on the construction of a $445 million (Dh1.63 billion) subsea cable linking the six GCC states.

Envisaged to be functional by fiscal 2011, the high-capacity fibre optic undersea cable will enable the transmission of transactions by telecom companies, banks, insurance and other firms in the Middle East.

The company stated in a communiqué that the cable will link Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE to each other, and to other countries.

Earlier, GBI had clinched a memorandum of understanding with Riyadh-based Integrated Telecom Company (ITC) to connect the Saudi market to the Gulf region and to the world via GBI's advanced and scalable network of submarine cables.

GBI network connects its Gulf ring to the world through two international connectivity routes to the East to India and the Far East and to the West to Italy and Europe.  

The collaboration between the two companies will enable ITC to cater to its customers' increasing demand on international data communications services in the Saudi Arabia.

(via TopNews Arab Emirates. Contributed by Maninder Singh)