Alcatel-Lucent Helps Double Capacity Between Asia and Europe with Sea-Me-We 4 Upgrade

(Business News & Technology News, 11 Mar 2008)

Alcatel-Lucent will be upgrading the capacity of the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe (Sea-Me-We) 4 submarine cable system that connects numerous countries from Singapore to France. With completion scheduled in 2009, this multi-million dollar second upgrade project will further double the existing trunk capacity of the system, going beyond the original design capacity, enabling Sea-Me-We 4 to support the increased broadband traffic requirements along the route.

Owned and operated by 16 carriers, Sea-Me-We 4 spans nearly 20,000 km linking 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. Alcatel-Lucent had the turnkey responsibility of this state-of-the-art network from design to laying for segments 2, 3, and 4 linking Mumbai to Marseilles, as well as the overall responsibility for the synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) end-to-end realization. Alcatel-Lucent, and its co-contractor Fujitsu, had supplied the initial Sea-Me-We 4 network that started commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2005. The network's capacity was subsequently tripled in the third quarter of 2007.

Under the terms of the contract, Alcatel-Lucent will upgrade the India-France submarine link by deploying, installing and commissioning additional dense wavelength division multiplexing equipment (DWDM), based on its 1620 Light Manager. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent will upgrade the 1626 Light Manager-based terrestrial link connecting Alexandria and Suez, and the existing SDH equipment, the Alcatel-Lucent 1678 Metro Core Connect, for this extensive network.

About the cooperation between Alcatel-Lucent and the Sea-Me-We consortia
After being selected for the Sea-Me-We 1 and 2 projects, the cooperation with the Sea-Me-We consortia continued onwards in 1997 when Sea-Me-We 3 was launched. Initially connecting South East Asia, Middle East and Western Europe, it links Far East Asia, South East Asia, Australia, South Asia, Middle East, Southern, Western and Northern Europe. It crosses the Seven Seas, spanning approximately 40,000 km.

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