The 20,000-km SEA-ME-WE 4 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe) undersea cable system is currently the longest submarine cable system to deploy 40 Gbps technology, the highest wavelength capacity available on undersea cable systems as of now, according to a company press release.
By upgrading from 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps, the resulting significant increase in international capacity will help to meet the growing demand for Internet and other data services in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and European regions as well as locations in-between.
"The additional capacity on SEA-ME-WE 4 is a strong complement to our other undersea and terrestrial cable systems that ensure significant long-term capacities and reliability through diversity," Sa'ad Demyati, STC's VP of Wholesale Business Unit, was quoted as saying in the news release.
"This upgrade is another important element of STC's strategy to maintain and reinforce its regional leadership position in this area. Also, it means faster and reliable Internet access and data communication for individuals and companies doing business in this region," he said.
He added: "This 40 Gbps upgrade is a testimony to the success of SEA ME WE 4 in terms of being the first major cable in our region to use DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) technology and we are proud to say that it is being upgraded for the third time in less than six years. In every industry there is an exceptional success and SEA-ME-WE 4 is such an example for the submarine market."
