Terabit Capacity SEA-ME-WE4 Undersea Cable Enters Service

The terabit-capable South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) was officially commissioned at a ceremony in Dubai. The initial capacity is 160 Gbps. Customer traffic is now being transmitted on the new cable, which was built by a consortium of 16 international telecommunications carriers at an estimated cost of US$500 million.


The cable system spans some 20,000 km with landings in 14 countries -- Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, France, India, Italy, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia and UAE.


Alcatel had the turnkey responsibility for the project and Fujitsu was co-contractor. Construction was completed in 18 months.


MCI, which is the only U.S. carrier in the consortium, said its customers can take advantage of seamless on-net connectivity in Asia, Europe and the United States. In addition to being a consortium member, MCI also is a landing/terminal party for the new submarine cable system in Marseilles, France. The team landed the cable in Marseilles in July, and MCI connected the cable directly to its European IP backbone infrastructure. This allows all MCI customers to reach both European and Transatlantic destinations across MCI's existing network infrastructure. MCI also has connected the submarine cable system directly to its network in Singapore.
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