ABU DHABI, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) and Middle East and North Africa Company (MENA) of Egypt have signed a deal on the landing of a submarine fiber optics cable on the Omani coasts to enhance the Gulf country's international telecom traffic, the English daily Oman Tribune reported on Saturday.
The cable landing point will be in Al Seeb, a district 30 km west of the Omani capital of Muscat, where the Omantel Submarine Cables Center is located, according to the report.
The 8,000-km cable, whose total cost is about 400 million U.S. dollars, passes through cities such as Mazara in Italy's Sicily, Crete in Greece, Alexandria and Suez in Egypt, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, and India.
It will provide a capacity of 5.7 terabits when it arrives in Al Seeb in the third quarter of 2009.
The cable will improve Oman's international telecom traffic, especially the Internet, and in case of any other cable breakage, provide alternative lines as well as offer upgradable facilities to support Internet, e-commerce, video, data and voice, Omantel's CEO Mohammed Bin Ali Al Wohaibi said.
In addition to the deal with MENA company, Omantel had recently joined 15 telecom companies in signing the Europe-India Gateway project for building a broadband cable from Britain to India via Oman, he added.
Omantel is the largest telecom service provider in Oman, owning 60 percent market share in terms of number of subscribers and 72 percent in terms of total revenue in mobile sector by the end of 2007.
