VSNL signs MoU to participate in the India-Middle East-Western Europe undersea cable
23 Oct 2006
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has announced having signed an MoU to join other international telecom service providers — Etisalat, Saudi Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telecom Italia Sparkle — to participate in the new submarine cable (I-ME-WE) linking India, the Middle East and Western Europe.
The IMEWE cable system will be built using DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) technology, with a proposed design capacity of at least 2.56 terabits per second (Tbps).
The signing of the MoU marks the first major milestone in the commissioning of the IMEWE cable project.
The cable project will connect the major countries in the region including India, UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy and France and provide interconnection facilities with several existing and emerging systems in the regions.
The five-member telecom consortium expects to get the IMEWE cable ready for service by mid 2008. The construction contracts are expected to be being awarded by end 2006.
The network, upon its commissioning, will provide high-speed connectivity to the Asian, Middle East, North & East Africa and Western Europe regions, and meet their exponentially growing bandwidth requirements.