Gibtelecom Partners with Monaco Telecom on Europe India Gateway

Gibtelecom has announced that it has recently entered into a strategic communications partnership with Monaco Telecom, part of the Cable and Wireless Communications group.

The partnership marks a further step on Gibtelecom’s journey to becoming a global communications carrier. Monaco and Gibraltar are now directly connected as both places are landing stations on the Europe India Gateway (EIG) submarine cable, and the arrangement sees Gibtelecom becoming a communications carrier of choice for Monaco Telecom. Concurrently Gibtelecom is to lease capacity from Monaco Telecom to provide it with a new communications access route to the European market.

Gibtelecom’s CEO Tim Bristow said “This mutually beneficial deal strengthens a longstanding friendship between both companies. The partnership means that, as well as Monaco Telecom leasing some capacity on the EIG cable, Gibtelecom separately acquires a diverse international route to other European destinations, transiting Monaco through the EIG landing station there. This will be the first time in over a century that a communications link from Gibraltar has headed directly east by sea from Gibraltar”. Gibtelecom’s International Director, Rab Paramothayan, added that “it is exciting to see Gibtelecom’s international business taking off as the Company expands its global network of business partners. There is already other EIG business in the pipeline which will cement Gibtelecom’s position as a small but established international communications player.”

Martin Peronnet, CEO of Monaco Telecom, said “Our companies have been able to leverage their mutual trust into a strong long term partnership. EIG has turned Monaco into a key gateway between Europe and the African and Asian continents. This deal will provide direct and secure access to even more international destinations for our customers and partners. It will further increase Monaco Telecom’s presence in the international data communication market”. Richard Faucheux, Monaco Telecom’s Director of Carrier Services, said “this contract further cements Monaco as a popular alternative to Marseille as a landing station of choice for carriers wishing to minimise latency and maximise diversity towards key European destinations such as Milan, Frankfurt, Paris and Zurich.”

Gibtelecom is one of the founding members of the EIG consortium, which since 2011 has operated a 15,000km high bandwidth state-of-the-art fibre optic submarine cable from London (UK) to Mumbai (India). The EIG cable has thirteen landing points, including Gibraltar and Monaco, and spans three continents. The EIG cable landing in Monaco extends to a landing station in Marseille, which is a major European communications hub.

Tim Bristow said, “This cable system not only provides Gibtelecom with significantly enhanced route diversity and resilience, to complement its extant terrestrial and other sea routes, but has placed the Company in a position to seek business opportunities outside Gibraltar through capacity and bandwidth sales.”

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Press Release, November 26, 2012