September, 2014– The new Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe (SEA-ME-WE 5) submarine cable system enters the operational implementation phase after the “Coming into Force” fulfillments have all been met. The contractors Alcatel Submarine Networks and NEC have started all operational activities in order to achieve the Ready-for-Service for the international submarine system by the second half of 2016.
SEA-ME-WE 5 will now enter its execution stage as it relies on strong commitment and large upfront funding from its consortium members
Devised with the latest 100Gbps technology and with a design capacity – of at least 24 Terabyte per second on 3-fibre pairs, SEA-ME-WE 5 is a multi-regional superhighway that will provide the lowest latency and represent an additional network layer of diversity and resilience for the heavily loaded Asia to Europe route.
Participated by 14 global players, SEA-ME-WE 5 will connect 17 countries from Singapore to Europe (Italy and France) and traverse Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Yemen, Djibouti, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The SEA-ME-WE 5 consortium members at this time include Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), China Mobile International Limited (CMI), China Telecom Global Limited (CTG), China United Network Communications Group Company Limited (China Unicom), Djibouti Telecom SA (Djibouti Telecom), Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du), Orange, Myanmar Post and Telecom (MPT), PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin), Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT), Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), Telecom Italia Sparkle (TIS).