News

SubCom and the Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 6 (SEA-ME-WE 6) consortium have begun taking the first steps in the deployment of the 19,200km submarine cable system

Following the in footsteps of its smaller predecessors in the SEA-ME-WE series, today has seen the SEA-ME-WE 6 consortium announced that work has begun on the project.

SEA-ME-WE 6 system will span roughly 19,200km between Singapore and France, landing at 12 locations across South East Asia, the Middle East, and Western Europe, offering an alternative route for data traffic between Asia and Europe. 

The cable system will not only be the largest of the SEA-ME-WE series but will contain more fibre pairs and more than double the capacity of its smaller sister cables. SEA-ME-WE 6 will be able to transfer more than 100 terabytes of date per second, equivalent to roughly 40,000 high-definition videos per second.

The members of the consortium have also been revealed in full: Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, Bharti Airtel Ltd. (India) Dhiraagu (Maldives), Djibouti Telecom, Mobily (Saudi Arabia), Orange (France), Singtel (Singapore), Sri Lanka Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telekom Malaysia, Telin (Indonesia), and Trans World Associates (Pakistan), China Mobile International, China Telecom Global Limited, China Unicom, and Microsoft (United States).

Estimates suggest that the total cost of the project will be roughly $500 million.

“With this new cable system, our partners will be able to meet and exceed capacity demands across multiple regions,” said Mr. Yue Meng Fai, Chairperson of the SEA-ME-WE 6 Management Committee and Senior Director, Consortium Cable Engineering, Singtel. “This new, reliable and resilient system encompasses some of the most advanced transmission technologies in the world and will improve access to services for everyone along this route.”

If all goes to schedule, the system should be operational in Q1 of 2025. 

 

Share