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Sri Lankan engineering feat connects with SEA-ME-WE submarine cable network
Thursday, 19 January 2006 - 1:51 AM SL Time
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Sri Lanka Telecom, the local telecommunications giant, has engineered to link up Sri Lanka to the SEA-ME-WE 4 fibre optic submarine cable project for multi-regional connectivity.
The project was carried out at a cost of US$30 million investment by SLT.'This has been a very great engineering feat from the SLT engineers' and 'we admire that,' SLT Chairman Anil Obeysekere said yesterday. He was speaking at the official inauguration of the local operations of the landmark SEA ME WE 4 submarine cable system at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel.
He pointed out, 'SLT was keen on investing in this project although one of the smallest countries, SLT has been advanced in the field of technology.'
'With the SEA ME WE 4 cable inauguration we will be able to meet' the challenges that may come up as faced previously when the SEA ME WE 3 cable was damaged by a shipping vessel sometime back, he said.
The high rate of connectivity, Internet downloading, foreign investors, the corporate giants in Sri Lanka, has been brought about through this, he said.
Mr. Obeysekere hoped that Sri Lanka 'will be on par with those in Asia or the world' in terms of connectivity.
This latest cable named SEA-ME-WE-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe) is the fourth in a series connecting three continents over a distance of almost 20,000 kilometers with a capacity of 1.28 Terabits per second.
SLT CEO Shuhei Anan speaking on the occasion observed that this has a 'significant meaning for SLT in Sri Lanka.' 'This cable can now provide through SLT global connectivity,' he said adding that SLT ha begun submarine cables with India and would be implemented in a couple of years` time.
'We are no processing to implement submarine cables'so that Sri Lanka is no more isolated in the region,' Mr. Anan said.
'The country as a whole will benefit from this marvellous cable route by increasing Sri Lanka`s competitiveness among global counterparts through higher connectivity, better reliability, improved security and enhanced speed ' all services now being at the same level as those in developed countries,' the CEO also noted.
This connectivity resource milestone spans 20,000 km, and has the state of the art submarine cable system is built and managed by a consortium of 16 operators representing 15 countries.
Attending the inauguration in Sri Lanka were over 50 delegates from SLT`s consortium partners, many of whom are also regional powerhouses.
The South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) project is the fourth project in the SEA-ME-WE series.
The South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 project is a next generation submarine cable system linking South East Asia to Europe via the Indian Sub-Continent and Middle East.
The project aims to take these regions to the forefront of global communication by significantly increasing the bandwidth and global connectivity of users along its route between Singapore and France.
On March 27, 2004, a consortium of 16 international telecommunications companies signed construction and maintenance agreements for the new optical fibre submarine cable system linking South East Asia to Europe via the Indian Sub-Continent and Middle East with Terminal Stations in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and France.
The contract is being awarded jointly to Alcatel Submarine Networks, France and Fujitsu Ltd., Japan and the estimated project cost is of the order of US$ 500 million.
The total length of the SEA-ME-WE 4 submarine cable system will span approximately 20,000 km which consists of the main backbone across the Eastern and Western worlds plus the extension links in various countries.
The system is amongst the most economical cable systems in the region and will be built with state-of-the-art Terabit DWDM technology to achieve ultra fast terabit per second connectivity. The project will support telephone, internet, multimedia and various broadband data applications.
Currently, the SEA-ME-WE 3 cable system is fully functional and will continue to be operational during its expected lifespan.
This cable will also support SEA-ME-WE 4 for restoration and vice versa. The target commissioning date for the SEA-ME-WE 4 project is set in the 3rd quarter 2005 and once the cable is fully operation, phased activations of capacity to meet growing bandwidth demand have been anticipated. A SEA-ME-WE 4 Management Committee has been set up to make decisions on issues concerning the project, such as whether it will be possible for new countries to be linked to the project in the future.
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