Cisco has agreed to work with The Bahrain Internet Exchange (BIX) with the aim of collaborating on a national project to help build a nationwide Next Generation Network platform in order to accelerate the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national development priorities as well as boost its presence in the Gulf region. One of the projects first priorities will be to reduce the cost of international Internet connectivity in the Kingdom, as well as provide high speed Internet services at a lower-cost. Cisco and BIX also aim to collaborate to enhance Broadband services in the Kingdom and further support the drive to increase the availability of local Internet websites for businesses in the region.
As part of its goal to enhance the country’s infrastructure, and in line with the country’s transformational plan, BIX has also launched two other major initiatives – the building of country's Cable Landing Station which will connect Bahrain to the new sub-marine cable that TATA is laying across the Gulf Corporation Countries (GCC) and develop the optical infrastructure of the Bahraini Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) to transform it into to a national communication highway utilising Cisco’s Pioneering Internet Protocol over Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplexing technology (IPoDWDM).
Cisco aims to work with BIX on a number of projects including the building of an IP Next Generation Network (NGN) & IP Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) core network for integrated network services throughout the Kingdom. This will help Bahrain stay at the forefront of technology updates and market transformations in order to be able to harness new trends and translate them into new business opportunities for its citizens.
Beyond their proven routing and switching strengths, Cisco’s solutions provide service-specific innovations that deliver enhanced qualities for video, mobile, and cloud or managed services. These solutions will provide a strong foundation for Bahrain’s current and future networking needs in the core and Data Center.
As a core element of the project, Cisco’s IPoDWDM technology aims to deliver the service flexibility, scalability and increased resilience to enable carriers to capitalise on increasingly bandwidth-intensive and complex applications in the Kingdom. Several providers world-wide, have been using IPoDWDM to combine and distribute video content rapidly and efficiently over an all-IP network, and provision additional network capacity instantly as demand increases for “any-play” consumer and managed business services. The Cisco IPoDWDM solution allows for the reduction of transport elements and, in some cases, the complete elimination of regeneration sites, dramatically reducing capital and operational costs.
Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), the company's global consultancy, which provides advisory services to the world's largest public and private organisations to solve critical business challenges, will advise BIX on various technology deployments and effective business processes. By connecting strategy, process, and technology, Cisco IBSG experts will enable BIX to turn visionary ideas into value.
BIX’s primary service is to provide a cost effective, high volume and high performance Internet connectivity. These services are designed for companies such as Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) reselling the internet to their end users. BIX connects ISP’s in order to increase local traffic and content, as well as reduce the cost of purchasing international bandwidth. BIX’s policy is to encourage investors to set-up ISPs in order reduce the barriers of entry into the Bahraini market.
