March 30, 2004 Tokyo--Fujitsu Limited announced that it has been selected by the Sea-Me-We 4 consortia, together with its co-contractor Alcatel, to construct a high capacity fiber-optic submarine cable network, as part of the Sea-Me-We 4 submarine optical network linking Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe. The new terabit cable system will support more than 32 times the initial transmission capacity of the previous Sea-Me-We 3 network.
The 20,000-km cable network, a length equivalent to half the earth's circumference, will link 14 countries from France to Singapore via Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia with 16 landing points. The system is commissioned for start-up by July 2005.
The network caters to the demand among consortia countries for high capacity transmission systems, which is expected to grow sharply over the next few years. The speedy and timely implementation of the Sea-Me-We 4 cable network is considered essential to meeting this rise in demand.
Under the terms of the contract, Fujitsu will provide a high capacity submarine optical system featuring its own submarine transmission technology, with optically amplified submersible repeaters and DWDM transmission equipment. This allows the company to achieve transmission capacities unprecedented for submarine networks of such a lengthy span. The project will be managed on a turnkey basis, covering all operations from marine survey, system design and manufacturing, through to marine installation, testing, commissioning and training.
Fujitsu is a supplier of turnkey international submarine telecommunications networks, with more than 30 years experience. In 1973 Fujitsu became the first Japanese supplier to participate in turnkey projects in Europe, supplying a link between Germany and Sweden. Fujitsu has supplied several submarine projects in Europe, and the Arabian Gulf. In Asia and the Pacific region, Fujitsu was a supplier for the most of the major submarine systems. Recently, Fujitsu has been selected a supplier for many high profile projects utilizing optical DWDM technology, including not only new systems but also expansion of the transmission capacity of existing submarine networks.