Orange is reinforcing its presence on the Asia-Europe network route by signing the construction and maintenance agreement for Sea-Me-We 5 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 5), a new submarine cable that will link France and Singapore.
In its planned configuration, Sea-Me-We 5 will connect Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka, India, Pakistan, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy and France.
The international consortium, of which Orange is now a member, plans to operate this new 20 000 km-long fiber optic cable at the end of 2016.
Securing the route for internet traffic as demand from Orange customers increases
Orange is also co-owner of three other submarine cables that run between Asia and Europe: Sea-Me-We 3, Sea-Me-We 4 and IMeWe, which were launched in 1999, 2005 and 2010 respectively.
In addition to providing extra capacity, the Sea-Me-We 5 cable provides Orange with an alternative route that guarantees the protection of voice and data traffic passing through the other cables in the area. Moreover, thanks to the inter-connection point in Djibouti, Orange can open up a new route towards the Indian Ocean to support the booming growth of broadband services in the islands of Reunion and Mayotte.
An important part of Orange’s submarine network
In France, the Sea-Me-We 5 cable will use a Point of Presence located in the Group’s telecommunications network group in Marseilles (Bouches du Rhône department). The connection will be established via a terrestrial cable running from the landing station, which is located nearby in the Var department. By diversifying points of access, this cable will further secure access to international broadband networks and will facilitate access to networks in France for Asian and African operators.
The cable design is based on the latest 100 Gbps very high-speed technology and will initially offer a capacity of 24 Tbps. In addition, the cable benefits from an advanced Wavelength Division Mulitplexing (WDM) system that enables cable capacity to be increased without additional submarine work. This means that the consortium will easily be able to increase capacity to reflect the latest technological developments.
Through this new development, Orange confirms its position as a leading player in the submarine cable market. In this role, the Group aims to develop the quality of service of its worldwide network, while optimizing costs and adapting its presence in order to absorb the continually increasing volumes of data being exchanged. These efforts to improve its global network will also facilitate the use of new digital services for end-users.
Press Release, July 25, 2014