KARACHI: HB International Investments, a company registered in the United Kingdom, will invest $100 million in Pakistan’s information technology and telecom sector to lay a submarine fiber optic cable linking the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a datacenter in Pakistan, the company said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Wi-Tribe Pakistan LDI, a group company of HB International Investments Limited and Du Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), signed an agreement to link the UAE with Pakistan via a new “Orient Express” undersea fiber optic.

“The project is much more than just [putting the] Submarine [cable] as this entails setting up [a] datacenter in Pakistan and inland terrestrial routes,” Emergent Telecommunications LLC, owned by HB International Investments, told Arab News in response to an email. 

Emergent Telecommunications LLC is also the project management company for “Orient Express” and is directly concerned with the project. “HB International Investments, owned by [a] Pakistani expat in [the] UK, will bring Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of USD 100 Million into Pakistan,” the company said.

As the partnering telecom operator for the landmark project along with Wi-Tribe Pakistan LDI, EITC will be UAE’s landing party for the cable and provide landing station infrastructure for the connectivity of the fiber optic cable system.

The 1,300-kilometer-long underwater cable will link UAE’s Kalba with Pakistan’s two provinces, Sindh and Balochistan, at the landing points of Karachi and Gwadar.

The cable system will carry four fiber pairs and 40 tbps of total design capacity, enabling faster connectivity via internet with the rest of the world.

Wi-Tribe LDI Pakistan is the owner of the project in Pakistan and possesses requisite licenses as per the regulations of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority.

Emergent Telecommunications, the project’s management company, told Arab News it had already started implementing the plan “in terms of technical closure and landing site acquisitions.”

The project seeks to build on China’s “One belt, One Road” initiative, a multibillion dollar investment project to develop global trade routes, and seeks to develop the opportunity for onward terrestrial connectivity with China to the east and Europe to the west.

“In this project we have 2 landing stations, Karachi & Gawadar. CPEC [China Pakistan Economic Corridor] project which is of immense importance for regional and bilateral trade will benefit from this submarine connectivity to the outside world,” Emergent Telecommunications said in a statement to Arab News. We believe this will also provide alternate route from regional UAE IX Internet Exchange to China and Hong Kong IX.”

After completions under the agreement, the Orient Express cable will offer high bandwidth capacity, internet services and transit facilities with low latency, high-quality routes, and peering services to other service providers and enterprise customers.

“The UAE is one of Pakistan’s major economic [and] trading partners and, by augmenting the rollout of the Orient Express subsea cable, we are playing a key part in further cementing the excellent ties between our two nations,” said Osman Sultan, CEO of EITC.

A growing ICT market, Pakistan has 161 million cellular, 69 million 3G/4G and 71 million broadband subscribers, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority data show.

The launch of the submarine cable system will help improve Pakistan’s digital divide, create education opportunities and increase general awareness among people.

"We are trailblazing new paths toward digital innovation, and the construction of the submarine cable system, “Orient Express,” is a testament to our efforts in becoming a pioneer in telecommunications," said Syed Rukhsar Ul Hassan Bokhari, chairman of Wi-Tribe Pakistan.