MANAMA: The Bahrain Internet Exchange (BIX) has announced the launch of its new submarine cable system the TGN GC which will connect the Kingdom of Bahrain and other Gulf countries to India and the rest of the world. The project, which has been dormant for over two years due to management difficulties, will prove to be a positive step forward for the Kingdom and its future developments in telecom services.
The newly elected Board of Directors, established in 2013 and chaired by Brigadier Mansoor Al Hajeri aims to generate ways in which BIX can utilize the TATA cable and dramatically improve communications infrastructure by increasing speed, bandwidth and capacity across the country. The connectivity of the cable was completed in a very short period of time since the Board was appointed.
“Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohamed Al Khalifa, the Minister of State Communication and the Board of Directors have spent numerous months trying to solve previously inherited problems, problems that have proved to be extremely costly with no financial returns. We are therefore pleased to announce that the TATA cable is now being launched this week and is connecting from BIX NOC in Juffair all the way to Mumbai supplying Internet service to all our customers,” Brigadier Al Hajeri said.
“The cost of the connection of the TATA cable to BIX NOC was much less compared to the cost of the previous management. It’s also worth mentioning here that by choosing TATA for the new connection, the Board of Directors has managed to slash service costs by 50% compared to recent years, and this has been passed on to the consumer.”
“Security is paramount in today’s society and plans to protect all communication infrastructures within Bahrain from interception, sabotage and natural forces are upper most in the Boards vision. Health issues are also a common concern but limiting usage of microwaves by encouraging the use of BIX Fibre Optic Network will reduce radiation drastically,” he added.
BIX is primed to offer all ISP maximum bandwidth capacity and speed of 1 gig to businesses and 100 Mbs to private and residential. Although BIX is a non- profit organization it aims to continue to progress benchmarking with major Internet exchanges from around the world like Singapore, Europe and London.