Spanning about 25,000 km, the AAE1 is the third longest submarine cable, said to connect 18 countries across Asia, Africa and Europe via Oman. It claims to provide an alternative and low latency route between the east and the west.
“Today we are actualising yet another embodiment of our new strategy Omantel 3.0 witnessing the milestone landing of the AAE-1 cable in Oman. As one of the longest submarine cables in the world, this achievement for Omantel and the Sultanate is undoubtedly making us feel proud,” said Talal al Maamari, CEO of Omantel.
“The AAE1 cable represents another step in enhancing our position as a truly international telecommunications player. Already over half of the international submarine cables that connect to the Arabian Gulf are connected through Omantel here in Oman. In the coming years, further extending our reach internationally is a key focus for Omantel, and a central goal of our 3.0 transformation strategy.”
Omantel claims to provide more protection and diversity to the AAE1 cable system through other systems like EPEG, another high capacity system consisting of redundant undersea cables to Iran and terrestrial cable via Azerbaijan and Russia to Frankfurt.
The operator recently landed the AAE1 cable in Marseille, becoming the first GCC operator to land the cable in the region. Earlier in February, it announced plans to launch a cable system to East Africa.
