Nawras successfully lands its first sea cable as part of the Tata Global Network-Gulf (TGN-Gulf) cable project

Nawras is celebrating the successful landing of its first sea cable in the Sultanate of Oman. Senior members of the Nawras family joined representatives from Tata Communications for this milestone event which saw the Tata Global Network (TGN) cable in the Gulf connected to the Nawras network, by world-renowned T E SubCom.
This new cable link will be fully functional before end of 2011. It will be used to instantaneously route traffic from Nawras customers in Oman to Mumbai, India and onwards to the rest of the world, via the Tata Global Network.
This is a landmark moment in that it represents the second provider in Oman to directly transmit international traffic. As a result, the Nawras sea cable will contribute to the thriving development of the nation by creating even greater competition in the telecommunications market, to the benefit of customers. This important step forward has been achieved with the help of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.
The cable will enable Nawras to economically meet the ever-growing demand for voice and data services from customers using both its mobile and fixed services.  Nawras will see a reduction in international interconnection costs as well as national and international transmission lease-line costs.  Once the new cable is functioning, Nawras will be able to control end-to-end quality for customers, whether they are making calls or using data to send an MMS or surf the Internet.
Ross Cormack, Chief Executive Officer, Nawras, said, “This is a very exciting time for Nawras and the latest milestone in our company’s growth. With the Tata Communications sea cable carrying traffic, we will not only be raising our quality standards even further but we will also have increased capacity and added reliability.”
The cable is part of the company’s strategy for international connectivity which means further cost efficiency improvements while offering customers faster speeds and more choice in data services. Nawras is already serving many of the major corporate players in Oman. This sea cable will offer enormous capacity for Broadband and high quality voice services and the company is now on the verge of being able to enhance its pleasingly different services.
The TGN-Gulf project landing parties are Nawras, Bahrain Internet Exchange (in the Kingdom of Bahrain), Qatar Telecom (Qatar), Mobily (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and Etisalat (United Arab Emirates).
“We are extremely pleased to be laying the foundation of this landmark project for Tata Communications in Oman,” said Radwan Mousalli, Managing Director for Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Tata Communications. “The TGN-Gulf Cable System, with its worldwide reach through Tata Communications’ global systems, will bring new dimensions to the infrastructure and unique service capabilities of Nawras. Using its own cable station, Nawras will have access to a new global, high-speed route, bringing much needed resilience and diversity to the infrastructure of the Sultanate of Oman. This capacity will enable the expansion of broadband penetration, internet usage and enterprise applications in Oman.”
Nawras along with Tata Communications and its partners have shared a vision to further build on the cable project. This is part of a strategic relationship to support the development of an extended portfolio of advanced telecommunications services such as Global Ethernet, MPLS-based VPN, Managed Security, IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and Global Telepresence.  All these services are suited to support both the local and global enterprises, which are very active in this rapidly expanding emerging market region.
The second leg of the sea cable will follow in the near future, further bolstering Nawras’ support for Oman’s e-initiatives as the country moves closer to His Majesty’s vision of a digital society.