Airtel to acquire GBI’s India operations

“Under the agreement, Airtel will acquire the ownership of the India leg of GBI’s India-Middle East-Europe submarine cable,” the Indian telecom major said in a statement, adding that: “Airtel will also pick up a significant capacity on Middle East-Europe section of GBI’s cable system.” It, however, did not divulge the acquisition amount. Airtel and GBI also agreed to formulate joint “goto-market” strategies and leverage the footprint of their respective global networks to serve global customers, it said. “GBI is a multilayer terrestrial and subsea cable-meshed network, which bridges the East to the West through the Middle-East.” 

“With this (agreement), we are adding a large capacity to meet the growing data, content demand in markets like India as well as serve the connectivity needs of global carriers and enterprise customers,” said Ajay Chitkara, Director-CEO for Global Voice- Data Business, Bharti Airtel.