Alcatel-Lucent has announced the work for a new 20,000km-long 100Gbps submarine cable connecting Europe to South East Asia via Middle East is under way. and is expected to complete by 2016.

The South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 5 (SEA-ME-WE 5) consortium’s system is designed to give faster access and better capacity to consumers and businesses from Singapore to Europe. With hubs serving Europe in France and Italy, the cable will also reach 17 other countries along the way, including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, UAE, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Alcatel-Lucent is taking care of the Sri Lanka-France stretch deployment, while project co-equipment provider NEC looks after the Singapore-Sri Lanka segment.

“We are pleased to start working on the construction of the SEA-ME-WE 5 system to deliver a state-of–the-art infrastructure that will combine several advantages in terms of innovation, flexibility and reliability to de-congest existing systems and will offer end-users an increased service experience,” Philippe Dumont, President of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks said.

“With the rollout of the SEA-ME-WE 5 system, we will deliver a dynamic and agile way to serve end-users and offer them the quality of service they need.” Linette Lee , Chairperson of the SEA-ME-WE 5 Management Committee said. “Alcatel-Lucent and NEC’s 100G undersea technology will help us in setting a new milestone in the further development of this route.”

The SEA-ME-WE 5 consortium consists of 15 of operators from around the world, including China Telecom Global, Emirates Telecommunications Company (PJSC), Orange and SingTel. The consortium has also received additional investment from such as TI Sparkle, the carrier services arm of Telecom Italia.

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