Alcatel-Lucent and NEC to Supply SEA-ME-WE 5 Cable System

According to Alcatel-Lucent news, Alcatel-Lucent has signed a contract valued at several hundred million US dollars with the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 5 (SEA-ME-WE 5) consortium of 15 leading telecom operators to deploy a new 100 gigabit per second (Gbit/s) undersea cable system. And NEC will be a co-contractor to deploy the Singapore to Sri Lanka segment of the SMW5 cable.

The SEA-ME-WE 5 cable system will span 20,000 km from Singapore to Europe, and will deliver ultra-broadband capacity and faster access to consumers and businesses.

Broadband traffic is growing exponentially as the appetite for new applications like cloud computing and on-demand video, where consumer appetites are becoming limitless. Furthermore, the demand for new connectivity reflects an end-user and business environment in which ultra broadband access is essential for sustainable growth and development.

Answering these needs, the SEA-ME-WE 5 cable system will deliver an ultimate design capacity of 24 Terabit per second (Tbit/s). The system will span 20,000 km connecting Singapore to France via Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Djibuti, Yemen, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Italy. Alcatel-Lucent will be deploying the segments spanning from Sri Lanka to France. Co-contractor NEC will be deploying the Singapore to Sri Lanka segment.

Ms Linette Lee (Singtel), Chairperson of the SEA-ME-WE 5 Management Committee said:  “As more data, applications and services move to the cloud, we need a more dynamic and agile way to serve end-users according to low-latency and quality-of-service that cannot be solved by bandwidth alone. We are confident that Alcatel-Lucent and NEC’s 100G undersea technology will provide us with the flexibility to address the increasing requirements for connectivity, as well as address new growth areas such as cloud computing for remote access.”

Philippe Dumont, President of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks said: “The world is increasingly connected and moving faster, with no foreseeable limit to what technology can enable. We are pleased to deliver to the SEA-ME-WE 5 consortium state-of–the-art technology and solutions that will help them flexibly and reliably manage bandwidth expansion on-demand. As a leader in advanced coherent technology, Alcatel-Lucent’s 100G technology and advances in its branching unit sets another benchmark for the supply of fully robust high capacity systems with a clear upgrade path to higher speeds.”

Source: Alcatel-Lucent