International network operator Tata Communications has signed an agreement with five Middle Eastern companies to jointly build a new cable system that will land at those companies' facilities in their respective countries in the Persian Gulf region.

Members of the new partnership are Bahrain Internet Exchange in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Nawras of Oman, Qatar Telecom of Qatar, Mobily of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates. Each company will have exclusive access to the new TGN Gulf Cable System in its country.

The new system will be connected to Tata's international network, which will give its customers access to markets in more than 200 countries across about 400 points of presence, according to a Tata statement.

Tata plans to leverage the new cable and its new partners to extend its portfolio of value-added services for local and global enterprise customers that are active in the Middle Eastern markets.

"This partnership with the top operators in the Middle East to build the TGN Gulf Cable System underscores our aspirations to be a key player in the emerging markets space," Tata President and COO Vinod Kumar said in a statement.

"Each of these partnerships will create mutual benefits that will multiply steadily as companies in the Middle East expand out to the rest of the world and as global MNCs seek connectivity to expand their operations to this fast growing region."

Tata operates slightly less than one million square feet of data center space globally.

On Tuesday, DatacenterDynamics held its fourth annual conference and expo in Dubai.