SG-France submarine cable system construction begins

It is expected to be completed by Q1 2025.

Construction of the 19,2000 kilometre-long submarine cable system connecting multiple countries between Singapore and France has begun, the Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 6 (SEA-ME-WE 6) consortium has announced.

The cable system offers one of the lowest latencies available between Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe and can transfer more than 100 terabytes per second or 40,000 high-definition videos each second.

Compared to the previous SEA-ME-WE cables, the SEA-ME-WE 6 will have more fibre pairs.

The system is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2025.

“This new cable system will help all parties provide faster broadband access to users along this multi-regional data superhighway while supporting surges from changing working and consumption habits from 5G, remote working needs and video streaming demands, among others,” Yue Meng Fai, chairperson of the SEA-ME-WE 6 management committee and senior director of consortium cable engineering at Singtel, said.

Apart from Singtel, other members of the consortium include  India’s Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company and Bharti Airtel Ltd. in India, Saudi Arabia’s Djibouti Telecom and Mobily, France’s Orange, Sri Lanka Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telekom Malaysia, Indonesia’s Telin, and Pakistan's Trans World Associates.