Alcatel and its co-contractor Fujitsu have been awarded the full Sea-Me-We 4 contract on a turnkey basis. The project will deliver a new terabit cable, which is more than 32 times the initial capacity of the previous Sea-Me-We 3 system and supports huge data growth plus leased line and broadband services. The cable system will carry telephone, Internet and various broadband data streams through 14 countries. Alcatel is one of the main suppliers of the previous Sea-Me-We 3 cable, which remains in service, both on land and at sea.
The Sea-Me-We 4 submarine cable will span 18,800 km, which is equivalent to approximately half the circumference of the globe, linking 14 countries from France to Singapore via Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia with 16 landing points.
Delivering the first-ever Bangladesh submarine cable network, the new cable network will utilize Alcatel’s submarine and terrestrial optical networking solution based on the most advanced systems recently delivered to the market. Alcatel will also provide a comprehensive set of services including marine and terrestrial installation, commissioning and integration services.
Alcatel will supply the turnkey system from France to India and a substantial terrestrial system across Egypt. Alcatel will also provide its network management suite covering all supplied system elements and an integrated SDH solution allowing flexible connection to the customers’ backbones at each landing point.
“The new award strengthens our successful cooperation and shared customer-focus view to deliver communications infrastructures that allow end-users to continuously benefit from the most advanced services,” said Jean Godeluck, president, Alcatel’s submarine network activity. “Alcatel reconfirms its leadership in the submarine segment and commitment to the in-house development of end-to-end optical networking solutions.”
Alcatel and the Sea-Me-We consortia have been cooperating since Sea-Me-We 1 and 2. This cooperation continued onward in 1997 when Sea-Me-We 3 was launched. Initially connecting South East Asia, Middle East and Western Europe, it links Far East Asia, South East Asia, Australia, South Asia, Middle East, Southern, Western and Northern Europe. It crosses the Seven Seas, spanning approximately 40,000 km. The network has been in service for three years, gathering 92 telecommunications carriers along the route, including France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom AG, Telecom Italia, OTE, Etisalat, China Telecom, SingTel, BT, KDD, Telecom Egypt, Saudi Telecom, etc.
It remains the most complex network architecture of any undersea system in the world to date, with traffic connections between 39 landing points along the route.
