UAE among 16 countries completing 20,000 km subsea cable

The 16-member SEA-ME-WE 5 Consortium, in which UAE telecom provider du is a stakeholder, recently announced the completion of its 20,000-kilometer subsea cable infrastructure on schedule.

The project is in-line with the UAE National Vision 2021 and the National Agenda of sustainable environment and infrastructure. The UAE is an emerging business hub in the region and investments from du were instrumental in bringing SEA-ME-WE 5 to the UAE, du said in a statement today.

South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 5, or SEA-ME-WE 5, is an optical fibre submarine communications cable system spans 16 countries from Southeast Asia through the Middle East to Western Europe.

It was implemented with over US$500 million from consortium members.

The system won the Project of the Year - Subsea award at the Global Carrier Awards in Paris in November 2016 for its technological and managerial excellence.

"As a leading smart city enabler, du takes into serious consideration any opportunity to improve the ICT infrastructure in the UAE, not only to benefit its intrinsic business requirements, but also to benefit the UAE as a whole. Our investment in the SEA-ME-WE 5 consortium is a reflection of our commitment to maintain and strengthen our position as a trusted partner for our customers who demand the highest quality solutions when it comes to their ICT needs," said Farid Faraidooni, Chief Operations Officer.

The growth of mobile data and internet usage in the UAE is driving the demand for higher-capacity infrastructure. du chose to be a stakeholder in the project to help support its capacity demand in the domestic and regional markets, du said.

du’s investment in SEA-ME-WE 5 will enhance the resilience of its network and ultimately support both customer and community satisfaction, the telecom provider added.

The subsea cable system is designed with a capacity of 24 terabits per second on 3-fiber pairs, fully capable of accommodating the future demand of data from other bandwidth-intensive applications such as enterprise data exchange, internet TV, and online gaming.

The SEA-ME-WE 5 submarine cable’s advanced 100Gbps technology is expected to meet the quadrupling of bandwidth demand between Europe and Asia.

"The completion of the SE-ME-WE 5 project is a landmark system upgrade for all data users worldwide. This system facilitates a new age of digital transformation and innovation, catalysing greater economic activities, trade and growth across three continents." noted Linette Lee, Chairperson, SEA-ME-WE 5 Consortium Management Committee.