SEA-ME-WE 5, an ambitious optical fibre submarine communications cable system which covers 16 countries from Southeast Asia through to Western Europe, has been completed on time and to schedule.
The cable is designed with a capacity of 24 terabits per second on 3-fibre pairs, capable of comfortably accommodating the future demand of data from other bandwidth-intensive applications such as enterprise data exchange, 4K internet TV, the continued explosion in You Tube videos and online gaming.
The SEA-ME-WE 5 submarine cable’s 100Gbps technology is expected to meet the quadrupling of bandwidth demand between Europe and the Asia continents although many pundits are now saying that growth could be even more than this.
The consortium noted the cable’s main endpoints are carrier-neutral/open points-of-presence connecting Singapore with Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Oman, the United Arab Republic, Qatar, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Egypt, Turkey, Italy and France.
Linette Lee, chairperson of the SEA-ME-WE 5 Consortium Management Committee said: “The completion of the SE-ME-WE 5 project is a landmark system upgrade for all data users worldwide. This system facilitates a new age of digital transformation and innovation, catalyzing greater economic activities, trade and growth across three continents.”
Consortium members include Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, China United Network Communications Group Company, Djibouti Telecom, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, Myanmar Post and Telecom, Ooredoo, Orange, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International, Saudi Telecom Company, Singapore Telecommunications, Sparkle, Sri Lanka Telecom PLC, Telecom Egypt, Telekom Malaysia Berhad, TeleYemen, Turk Telekom International and Trans World Associates Limited Pakistan.
