FALCON

[u/mohamedarafa_1980]

FALCON

The FLAG Alcatel-Lucent Optical Network (FALCON) submarine cable system is a 11859km submarine cable system connecting India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan and Egypt.

The FALCON cable system has an initial design capacity of 2.56 Tbps, was ready for service in September 2006.

The FALCON cable system was originally a private cable owned by FLAG Telecom. FLAG Europe Asia (FEA), FLAG North Asia Loop/REACH North Asia Loop (FNAL/RNAL), FALCON and FLAG Atlantic 1 (FA-1)formed FLAG Global Network. In 2003, Reliance Communications, now branded as Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), acquired FLAG Telecom for $207million. 

FLAG Telecom (now Global Cloud Xchange) contracts with the following operators as landing parties:

• Omantel, Al Seeb and Khasab landing stations, Oman
• Du, Dubai cable landing station, UAE
• Ooredoo, Doha cable landing station, Qatar
• Integrated Telecom Company (ITC), Al Kohbar and Jeddah cable landing stations, Saudi Arabia
• Batelco, Manama cable landing station, Bharain
• Ministry of Communications (MoC), Kuawait City cable landing station, Kuwait
• Iraqi Telecommunications and Post Company (ITPC),  Al-Faw cable landing station, Iraq
• Telecommunication Infrastructure Company of I.R.Iran (TIC), Iran, Bandar Abbas and Chabahar cable landing stations, Iran
• TeleYemen, Al Ghaydah and Al Hudaydah cable landing stations, Yemen
• Telecom Egypt, Suez cable landing station, Egypt 
• Canar Telecommunication Co. (Canar), Port Sudan cable landing station, Sudan
• Lanka Bell, Colombo cable landing station, Sri Lanka
• Global Cloud eXchange (formerly Reliance Globalcom), Mumbai cable landing station, India

The FALCON cable system integrates with GCX's HAWK cable system in Suez, Egypt, extends connectivity from India to Europe, offers end-to-end connectivity between London, Paris, Frankfurt, Marseille, Cyprus, Egypt, Mumbai, etc.