Installation of Backbone (OSP) for Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC (‘du’).

‘du’ Northern Emirates backbone project was a part of a cable system installation program, which will interconnect in the near future all the countries of the Gulf Region to the Europe India Gateway (EIG) which is the first direct, high-bandwidth optical fibre undersea cable system that will stretch from the United Kingdom to India. The EIG cable system is a 15,000 km international fibre optic submarine cable system that links 13 countries across Europe, Africa and Asia.

16th February, 2010: GBI – Gulf Bridge International – announced the signing of the agreement with UAE’s integrated telecom service provider – ‘du’. As part of this agreement ‘du’ landed GBI’s new submarine cable in its newly built Fujairah Cable Landing Station.

“It is a great pleasure to land and operate the GBI cable system in such an important country as UAE. The opportunity to partner with ‘du’ will enable GBI to address the increased demand for international connectivity that is forecast for the UAE, as it continues to grow and diversify its business base”, – Mr. Hamad Al Mannai.

Background: ‘du’ (Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company) is rapidly-growing enterprise. They offer fixed mobile telephony, broadband connectivity and IPTV services to individuals, homes and businesses, and carrier services for businesses and have a subscriber base of 3.5 million. FOSS LLC was engaged with ‘du’ during the early stages of  first fibre optic cable installations within D.I.C. Over the past few years FOSS has become the partner of ‘du’ and now is an official authorised reseller for ‘du Call Select’ business telephony services.

The Project:

The contract awarded to FOSS via a competitive tendering process is for the installation and commissioning of an ultra low loss optical backbone network in a resilient ring spanning over 550 km. FOSS LLC was required to complete the first critical link connecting Academic City to Fujairah Cable Landing station within 6 weeks of handing over the site for the works.

The fibre optic cable had to be installed along the service corridors of the Northern Emirates area (Masafi, Kalba, Al Fujairah, Khorfakkan, Dibba, Al Tuwayyain Rd., Al Manama Rd., Ras Al Khaimah, Emirates Rd., Umm Al Quwain, Ajman and Sharjah). The Backbone’s start and end points were in Dubai.

FOSS Solution:

The first phase had to be completed within six weeks and thus involved over 110 km of both duct and self-supporting aerial cable (144 fibres). The installation was particularly challenging due to the mountainous terrain that the cable root took.  All local government and end user regulations had to be followed at all times.

Details of the 1st phase of the project:

• Solo ADSS All-Dielectric Self-Supporting Fibre Optic Cables (Corning). 48, 144, 288 core patch panels and outdoor splice enclosures.
• Figure-eighting technique was used in order to pull both directions from a central location or to make a transition from the moving reel (drive-oss) installation method to the stationary reel. – Cable Installation DOZ to DXB (5 drums) 25 km – Cable Install DXB to RAK Site (11 Srums) 8K Aerial Cable Install RAK to FUJ (5 Drums) 16 km – Cable Install RAK to FUJ (8 Drums) 40 km – terminate at Fujairah Site.
• Installation of 144 core SM fibre optic cable (self-supported aerial, ducted) in accordance with Corning Installation procedures.
• Termination/Splicing of the fibre LC Singlemode connectors, 42U rack installation inside the POP/MDF/IDF room, drums tests of group and aerial cable.

The Result:

The period for the completion of the whole of the works (540 km ring) is 540 days from the commencement day. So far 110 km of fibre optic cable back bone has been installed as per the agreed schedule. It provides connectivity to the ‘du’ Fujairah Landing Station, which acts as a ready access to international connectivity of UAE to other cable system. ‘du’ customers receive connectivity to global destinations. ‘du’ can serve their clients, and offer the full range of voice, data and internet services. Entire network ring is being installed at a lower cost than any other solutions provider in UAE with skilful installation techniques, performance guarantees and effective project management.

The new system will have the capability to meet the rapid growth in demand that has been forecast for traffic originating and terminating in Gulf.

‘du’ Northern Emirates Project adds strength to the existing facilities of ‘du’ and reinforces their position as a provider for international traffic into within and out of Middle East. Gulf Bridge International’s cable in its turn will add further resilience and diversity to their existing services, allowing them to offer better quality of service to ‘du’ customers and increase their reach in key market. As a result, UAE will benefit from greater connectivity and access to more capacity, that will further stimulate demand for newer bandwidth hungry services like cloud computing and outsourced services.