MUMBAI: Telecommunications major Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) has been chosen as the network administrator for one of the world's largest and sophisticated trans-continent cable systems-SEA-ME-WE4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe).
This is the first time that an Indian company has been chosen as the network administrator for a global consortium cable system. The SEA-ME-WE4 consortium has 16 members.
VSNL also hosts the network-operating centre in Mumbai. The twin role of network administrator and hosting the operating centre will enable VSNL to play a key role in the day-to-day operations of the cable system.
Says VSNL executive director N. Srinath, "VSNL has built and acquired extensive global submarine cable networks, and is well positioned to become a major provider of bandwidth and managed services to carriers and enterprises, globally. The fact that 16 telecommunications companies from different countries across Asia, Africa and Europe have joined hands to build the SEA-ME-WE4 underlines the importance of cooperation in a global world. VSNL is privileged to have been chosen as the Network Administrator of this cable system. Now with the commissioning of the SEA-ME-WE4 system, we will be able to enhance our network coverage in Asia, Africa and Europe."
A consortium of 16 partners, comprising leading global telecom carriers, announced at Dubai on December 13, 2005 the completion and inauguration of the high-capacity fiber-optic submarine cable that stretches from France to Singapore. This latest cable named SEA-ME-WE 4 (South East Asia, Middle East and Western Europe), is the fourth in a series connecting three continents over a distance of almost 20,000 kilometers having design capacity of 1.28 Tera bits per second.
The 16 companies that form the consortium are: Algerie Telecom, Bharti (India), BTTB (Bangladesh), CAT Telecom (Thailand), Etisalat (UAE), France Telecom, MCI, PTCL (Pakistan), Singapore Telecom (SingTel), Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), Saudi Telecom (STC), Telecom Egypt, Telecom Italia Sparkle (Italy), Telekom Malaysia, Tunisia Telecom (Tunisia) and VSNL.
The SEA-ME-WE4 cable is initially equipped with 160 Giga bits bandwidth using state-of-the-art DWDM technology along with latest 640Giga bits matrix Digital Cross Connect in every station. The system can be upgraded up to its final design capacity of 1.28 Tera bits.
VSNL is a leading player in the submarine cable bandwidth business globally. In addition to owning capacity on several cable systems the company has also built the Tata Indicom Cable (India-Singapore) and acquired the undersea
cable assets of Tyco Global Network (TGN).
