REIT fund Keystone, owned by Navot Bar, Roni Biram, and Gil Deutsch, is joining a project by Cinturion Corp. for laying an intercontinental fiber-optic network at a total investment of some $900 million.
The fund has bought 25% of the project for deploying an advanced fiber-optic network extending 20,000 kilometers that will open an Internet channel connecting India, the Middle East and Europe. Israel, which is a central crossroads in the project, will be connected via the advanced network both eastwards and westwards.
According to the company, the Trans Europe Asia System (TEAS) is a new generation of data transport infrastructure using the most advanced fiber-optic technology (dark fiber) that will traverse six countries: India, the Gulf states, Jordan, Israel, France, and Italy, and will connect data centers of large corporations and telecommunications carriers in the Middle East, as well as supporting information technology and computing initiatives of major international corporations.
Two cables will be laid from Europe via Israel, one going directly eastwards and the second via the Gulf of Eilat. The project is due to start shortly and the cable laying is expected to be completed in 2023.
An additional submarine cable owned by Google and Telecom Italia and called Blue Raman is planned for connecting Italy to India via the Gulf of Eilat. Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) won the contract for the land segment in Israel.
Keystone CEO Navot Bar said, "The fund identified the great potential in the infrastructures of the future, and has entered into a huge deal in partnership with one of the leading companies in the field. This an extraordinary investment, made during the period of normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries, which facilitates rapid progress with the project. Among Keystone's partners in the project are former senior officers in the US Army, British investors, and investors from the Gulf states and Israel."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 4, 2021
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