Speed

May 01, 2013 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Dialog Axiata which is in a consortium of telecom firms that is building a submarine cable system running from Malaysia to the Middle East through South Asia said it would increase international connections. "The provision of this alternate artery will provide a tremendous boost to the overall connectivity from a Sri Lankan perspective as well as providing an affordable, economical option to all players in the Sri Lankan market who require bandwidth to function," he said.

"Accessing international capacity at the lowest rates is essential for Sri Lankan enterprises to remain competitive in a global economy."

Belgium's Alcatel-Lucent said it had been selected to build the 100 Gigabits-per-second cable system.

"Dialog’s investment in a submarine cable system leads on from our aggressive commitment to deliver the fastest and most advanced telecommunications technology to Sri Lanka.." group chief executive Hans Wijayauriya said in a statement.

The 'Bay of Bengal' submarine cable will run from Singapore and Malaysia to the UAE and Oman via Sri Lanka and India. Dialog, Malaysia Telekom, UK's Vodafone, India's Reliance, Omantel and UAE's Etisalat are project partners.

Wijayasuriya said Dia