Alcatel to lay network cable linking Mumbai

New Delhi, Feb 12 (UNI) Alcatel-Lucent today said it has signed a turnkey contract with a consortium composed of nine operators to deploy a new submarine cable network linking Mumbai in India to Marseilles in France, a distance of about 13,000 kms.

Named India-Middle East-Western Europe (IMEWE), this new submarine cable network meets the need for enhanced, backhaul communications capabilities along the India-Western Europe route, as well as for increased capacity to support high-bandwidth broadband services, said a statement.

As part of IMEWE, a terrestrial link will also be deployed in Egypt to connect the cities of Alexandria and Suez.

The nine parties that form the consortium include Bharti, Etisalat, France Telecom, Ogero Telecom, PTCL, STC, Telecom Egypt, Telecom Italia Sparkle and VSNL.

With completion scheduled in the last quarter of 2009, IMEWE will help support the global traffic growth driven by the need of peer-to-peer IP-based services including video applications, broadband Internet, downloading, voice and video calling.

IMEWE will be composed of two trunk cables connecting India to France via Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and Italy.

Along the route, this cable network will have ten landing points located in Mumbai (two), Karachi, Fujairah, Jeddah, Suez, Alexandria, Tripoli Catania and Marseilles.

Alcatel-Lucent will build the turnkey system with the support of its subcontractor NEC who will provide and install the wet plant from Mumbai to Jeddah.

UNI PBB MP PM1955