I-ME-WE

I-ME-WE
Owners:
Consortium
Total length12,091 km
Design capacity5.6 Tbit/s
TechnologyDWDM
Date of first use2010

I-ME-WE (India-Middle East-Western Europe) is a 12,091-kilometre (7,513 mi)[1] submarine communications cable system linking Europe and India via the Middle East. At launch, the design capacity was 3.84 Tbit/s, but after upgrades by Mitsubishi Electric in 2016, the new design capacity was rated at 5.6 Tbit/s.[2] The cable entered service in December 2010.[3]

The cable consists of three fiber pairs, one of which is a terrestrial link connecting Alexandria and Suez in Egypt. The contract for construction and maintenance of the cable was awarded to Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN), supported by NEC as subcontractor, at a total cost of US$480 million.[4]

Landing points and operators

The IMEWE consortium comprises nine telecom companies across eight countries.[4]

I-ME-WE Cable Landing Points
Location Operator & Technical Partner
Marseille, France Orange S.A[5]
Catania, Italy Telecom Italia Sparkle[3]
Tripoli, Lebanon Ogero[6]
Alexandria, Egypt

Suez, Egypt

Telecom Egypt[7]
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Saudi Telecom Company[8]
Fujairah, UAE Etisalat by e&[9]
Karachi, Pakistan Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited[10]
Mumbai, India Bharti Airtel[11]

Tata Communications[12]

See also

Other cable systems following a substantially similar route are:

References

  1. ^ "Alcatel-Lucent to build undersea cable". Business Standard. 2008-02-13. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  2. ^ "MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC News Releases Mitsubishi Electric to Upgrade IMEWE Cable System". www.mitsubishielectric.com. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  3. ^ a b "IMEWE submarine cable launched for Commercial use | Sparkle". www.tisparkle.com. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  4. ^ a b "IMEWE - Submarine Networks". www.submarinenetworks.com. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  5. ^ "France Telecom-Orange Lights IMEWE". LightReading. 2010-12-14. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  6. ^ "IMEWE cable goes live in Lebanon after a long wait - Edge Middle East". Edge Middle East. 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  7. ^ "About TE". Telecom Egypt. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  8. ^ "STC leads in submarine cable projects in Mideast". Saudigazette. 2012-07-24. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  9. ^ "ANALYSIS: Fujairah SmartHub aiming to spark Middle East growth". Capacity Media. 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  10. ^ "Work on high-capacity sub cable completed". The Nation. 2010-12-12. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  11. ^ "Airtel launches IMEWE cable system". www.telecompaper.com. 2010-12-10. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  12. ^ "New India-Middle East-Europe submarine cable launched". Hindustan Times. 2010-12-29. Retrieved 2024-02-18.