I-ME-WE
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I-ME-WE (India-Middle East-Western Europe) is a 13000 km[1] high speed optical submarine cable connecting Mumbai, India with France. The cable system shall provide data rates of up to 3.84 Terabits per second, and is expected to be operational in 2009. Internet Service Providers and Network Operators hope to utilize the additional bandwidth to support high-bandwidth peer-to-peer IP-based broadband services such as multimedia streaming, broadband Internet and voice/video telephony.[2]
The cable system shall also include a terrestrial link connecting the cities of Alexandria and Suez in Egypt.
The cable system shall be funded by a consortium of 9 companies from across the world:[3]
- Bharti Airtel (India)
- Etisalat (UAE)
- France Telecom (France)
- Ogero (Lebanon)
- PTCL (Pakistan)
- STC (Saudi Arabia)
- Telecom Egypt (Egypt)
- Telecom Italia Sparkle (Italy)
- VSNL (India)
The I-ME-WE cable system shall comprise of three optical fiber cable pairs and 2 trunk lines. It shall have landing stations at:
- Mumbai (India) (two landing sites)
- Karachi (Pakistan)
- Fujairah (UAE)
- Jeddah (Saudi Arabia)
- Suez (Egypt)
- Alexandria (Egypt)
- Tripoli (Libya)
- Catania (Italy)
- Marseilles (France)
The contract for the construction and maintenance of the cable system has been awarded to Alcatel-Lucent.
