Submarine cable upgrade

Alcatel has been awarded a multi-million dollar turnkey contract to upgrade the Sea-Me-We 3 submarine cable network.

Due to be completed by the end of 2005, the upgrade will provide the 38,000 km Sea-Me-We 3 cable network with extra capacity to support the increased traffic loads driven by the rollout of broadband services.

Alcatel will upgrade submarine sections linking the UK to India via France, Portugal, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti in Africa and the United Arab Emirates as well as all the terrestrial stations along the network.

In the submarine sections, the company will deploy its new DWDM submarine line terminal, the Alcatel 1620 Light Manager. At the landing stations, it will use its Optical Multi-Service Nodes, the 1678 Metro Core Connect and DWDM terrestrial systems.

Last March, Alcatel and its co-contractor Fujitsu were awarded a turnkey contract for the Sea-Me-We 4 project. The Sea-Me-We 4 system will span nearly 20,000 km, linking 14 countries from France to Singapore via Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia.