International wholesale IP and Ethernet carrier tinet and the Middle Eastern cable system Gulf Bridge International (GBI) announced a partnership this morning. Tinet gains connectivity to the major ports in the Middle East and on to southern Asia, routes which the company has not previously had a big presence. Meanwhile, GBI gains easier access to the rest of the world via capacity and services on Tinet’s global network, especially into Europe. As the two are not likely to compete directly any time soon, it seems like a natural pairing.
GBI has been making lots of partnerships lately, preparing for the the date the cable goes live sometime in 2011. In September, they also partnered with pan-European operator Interoute. And back in May, they looked eastward with another partnership with pacific operator Pacnet. That’s an interesting group of partners, one that doesn’t include the largest companies out there but instead the smaller, more aggressive alternative carriers. So far anyway.
As for Tinet, I wonder if this means some new, Ethernet PoPs will be making their way onto Neutral Tandem’s Ethernet Exchange next year. They’d be in a position to negotiate NNI’s with the incumbents in the Persian Gulf region.
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Categories: Ethernet · Internet Backbones · Undersea cables
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This is not meaningful. The landing rates for the capacity are still controlled by the landing partners, so there is no risk that prices will come down significantly. If Tinet wants to build Ethernet PoPs out in the Gulf at hundreds of thousands per month in network costs, good luck to them.