Gulf Bridge International (GBI) signed an agreement with Ciena to deploy its Converged Packet-Optical Networking solutions, that will support the region’s increasing demand for connectivity.
Speaking on the occasion of the deal, Abdulla Al Rwaili Executive Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of GBI said, “We have recognized that the ever-increasing bandwidth usage in the region has created a demand for customized services and greater network upgrades. The investments in greater network intelligence will help us deliver on the current and future needs of our customers and partners.”
Ed McCormack, Vice President and General Manager of Submarine Systems at Ciena, comments, “With Ciena’s solutions underpinning GBI’s submarine and terrestrial cables, GBI will have a fully optimized end-to-end network. This massive capacity enhancement also means that GBI is well positioned to accommodate growth and help its customers facilitate the demand for high-bandwidth applications, such as those needed for video and cloud services.”
Deploying Ciena’s solutions will enforce GBI’s advanced portfolio of enterprise and wholesale Ethernet services and will enable network flexibility and scalability. The deployment of upgrades of 100G and 200G wavelengths on GBI’s submarine segments, is believed to be the first deployment of such technology in the region which will enable unprecedented capacity and will increase GBI’s network capacity twenty-fold. This capacity enhancement will enable GBI to offer differentiated, premium business and wholesale services across the region, connecting the world to the Middle East.
Ciena’s 6500Packet-Optical platform, equipped with the new WaveLogic 3 Extreme chipset, combined with GeoMeshsubmarine solutions and E-Suite integrated packet switching, will add more intelligence to the GBI network, as well as improved ease of operations, maintenance and future capacity expansions, including an option to perform future upgrades. More importantly, GBI’s latest infrastructure investment validates the organization’s results-oriented vision and mission to meet the demands of customers and partners and to deliver on the company’s promises to deploy state-of-the-art technology and high-bandwidth services.