Sea-Me-We 4 Sub Project Awarded

PARIS, March 30 -- Alcatel and co-contractor Fujitsu have been awarded a contract to deploy, on a turnkey basis, the new generation of the Sea-Me-We (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe) submarine cable network, which will deliver a new terabit cable -- more than 32 times the initial capacity of Sea-Me-We 3.

Sea-Me-We 4 will span nearly 20,000 km -- about half the circumference of the globe -- and will link 14 countries: from France to Singapore via Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia, with 16 landing points.

Under the terms of the contract, Alcatel will supply its new-generation dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) submarine line terminal, which enables operators to expand and upgrade their repeatered submarine cable networks. Alcatel will also supply its DWDM system for terrestrial applications completing and extending Alcatel's offering for regional and long haul DWDM. Alcatel will also provide a services including marine and terrestrial installation, commissioning and integration.

The Sea-Me-We network has been in service for three years, gathering 92 telecommunications carriers along the route, such as France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom AG, Telecom Italia, OTE, Etisalat, China Telecom, SingTel, BT, KDD, Telecom Egypt and Saudi Telecom.

For more information, visit: www.smw3.com