I-ME-WE | |
---|---|
Owners: Consortium | |
Total length | 12,091 km |
Design capacity | 5.6 Tbit/s |
Technology | DWDM |
Date of first use | 2010 |
I-ME-WE (India-Middle East-Western Europe) is a 12,091-kilometre (7,513 mi)[1] submarine communications cable system linking Europe and India via the Middle East. At launch, the design capacity was 3.84 Tbit/s, but after upgrades by Mitsubishi Electric in 2016, the new design capacity was rated at 5.6 Tbit/s.[2] The cable entered service in December 2010.[3]
The cable consists of three fiber pairs, one of which is a terrestrial link connecting Alexandria and Suez in Egypt. The contract for construction and maintenance of the cable was awarded to Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN), supported by NEC as subcontractor, at a total cost of US$480 million.[4]