Xtera Wins 100G Deal at GBI

Optical networking equipment maker Xtera captured a multi-year sole source 100G contract with Gulf Bridge International (GBI). Xtera will deploy its full range of gear for GBI on both terrestrial and undersea routes, including their Raman+100G coherent solution.

GBI is making a big bet on a long term bandwidth explosion in the Middle East, building big new pipes between the Persian Gulf and the rest of the world via India to the east and Europe to the west. They’ve been putting in place partnerships all year, and should turn it all on by the end of the year.

100G technology seems to be getting more early adopters from the undersea cable industry than I might have thought, and in different geographies too.  Along with GBI’s plans, Japan’s NTT recently demonstrated 100G waves with Infinera on a transpacific route.