Fifteen global telcos to connect continents :
A giant step towards a SMART Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the country's ICT giant, has partnered 15
international telecommunication operators representing 17 countries to
build the South East Asia- Middle East - Western Europe 5 (SEA-ME-WE 5)
state-of-the-art undersea cable system: a multi-regional super highway
spanning approximately 20,000 kilometres from Asia Pacific to Europe via
Sri Lanka.
The said group of telecom companies have formed a consortium to
jointly pursue the building of this undersea cable system with
state-of-the-art technology. The collaboration was made official when
the consortium members Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL),
China Mobile International Limited (CMI), China Telecommunications
Global Limited (CTG), China United Network Communications Group Company
Limited (CU), Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC(du),
Orange (formerly France TelecomFT), Myanmar Post and Telecom (MPT), PT
Telekomunikasi
Indonesia International (Telin), Saudi Telecom Company (STC),
Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT),
Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), Telecom Italia Sparkle (TIS), TOT Public
Company Limited, Yemen International Telecommunications Co. (TeleYemen)
signed the Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) and the
Supply Contract forSEA-ME-WE 5 cable system in Kuala Lumpur recently.
The SEA-ME-WE 5 submarine cable system, spanning approximately 20,000
km, will offer a POP to POP solution from Singapore, all the way to
Europe via France and Italy. It connects 17 countries altogether,
serving as the new platform for future business ICTs.
The conceptualization of SEA-ME-WE 5 submarine cable system evolved
around the capacity requirements of inter-continents to support the next
generation internet applications which come from every part of the
world.
The traffic has grown significantly in recent years, resulting in
existing cable systems such as SEA-ME-WE 4 getting heavily loaded, thus
creating the need for a new superhighway to cater for futuristic
capacities, diversities and access capabilities.
Group Chief Executive Officer of Sri Lanka Telecom, Lalith De Silva
said, "The gigantic capacity derived through this new cable system would
facilitate the exponential growth in demand for data both locally and
internationally and thereby would enable Sri Lanka to leverage on its
strategic geographical location in developing the six regional hubs as
envisioned by GoSL. This initiative will be one of the key enablersin
achieving the expected socio-economic growth in the country and would
accelerate the move towards an inclusive digital economy and a SMART Sri
Lanka."
The SEA-ME-WE 5 cable system which is scheduled to commence
operations by early 2016is designed to provide upgradeable transmission
facilities by adopting the latest state-of-the-art 100 Gbps technology.
When fully loaded, the SEA-ME-WE 5 cable system would be able to carry
24,000 Giga bits per second (24Tera bits per second); the equivalent of
transmitting around 4800 high-definition movies every second.
"As SLT's major traffic routes are connected to key destinations in
Europe, Asia Pacific and Indian regions, the upcoming SEA-ME-WE 5,being
the fastest and highest capacity international cable system connecting
these regions, would undoubtedly boost country's international
transactions many fold. SEA-ME-WE 5 has the capability to handle traffic
from the cable starting point to its end - from Singapore to France -
with lightning speeds of less than 90 milliseconds which in fact is the
fastest speed achieved interconnecting Asia pacific to Europe. Another
important feature of this cable system is the facilitation of POP to POP
connectivity with no barriers.
This will enable operators to connect with the required POP directly
from the landing point at no extra cost; thereby offering cost benefits
to operators that opt to connect to Sri Lanka via the SEA-ME-WE 5
cable", he said.
According to company's strategic objectives, investment in Global
Connectivity is a key strategy devised to support the national
objective of making Sri Lanka the Digital Hub of the region. SLT has
partnered with SEA-ME-WE consortiums right from the inception and
currently SLT connects globally via SEA-ME-WE 3, SEA-ME-WE 4 and two
other private cables to India and Maldives. With SLT's investment in the
new SEA-ME-WE 5 cable, country's global connectivity capacity will move
to the next level - withTerabits of capacity; making Sri Lanka and SLT
'future ready' to take on the envisaged data explosion. As Sri Lanka has
been offered the "full landing" status by SEA-ME-WE 5consortium, that
will pave the way to establish a Global POP in Sri Lanka in the future.
Furthermore, the SEA-ME-WE 5cable station that is being established in
Matara facilitates double landing;thereby enhancing the reliability of
Sri Lanka's connectivity to the system. With these global connectivity
advancements, Sri Lanka will be the most preferred destination in the
region for BPO or Data Centre operations. |