Construction starts on another Asia-Europe undersea cable
- Reference: 1645443012
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/02/21/singtel_cable/
- Source link:
The company claimed the new optical-fibre cable system, called the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 6 (SEA-ME-WE 6), would offer one of the lowest latencies between these regions at a transfer rate of 100 terabytes – or 40,000 high-def videos – per second.
Its exact route goes from Singapore to Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, India, Pakistan, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
[1]
Click to enlarge
Singtel exec and cable consortium chairperson Yue Meng Fai said in a [2]canned statement that the cable has been in the works for over two years as rising demand for connectivity amid global digitalization was predicted.
[3]Indonesia's new mega-telco to build 18,000km submarine cable to the US
[4]China builds 'free trade data port' inclusive of submarine cable landing station
[5]New submarine cable to link Japan, Europe, through famed Northwest Passage
[6]New cable incoming! Hawaiki Nui set to connect Sydney, Singapore, and LA by 2025
Turns out that prediction was not wrong, as broadband needs have increased even more significantly thanks to pandemic consumption habits.
The cable won't be ready until around Q1 2025.
[7]
As the name suggests, there are a few iterations of the SEA-ME-WE cables. The [8]SEA-ME-WE 3 , [9]4 , and [10]5 all connect Europe to Asia, with some extending beyond.
[11]
In 2013, three scuba divers were [12]arrested trying to sever SEA-ME-WE 4. That same cable, along with SEA-ME-WE 3, was damaged in 2008 by a ship's anchor. The [13]incident took out 75 per cent of Egypt's internet access and had a ripple effect in other regions.
Given both its history and that digitalization is not expected to slow down any time soon, redundancy doesn't seem like a bad idea here. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/02/21/sea_me_we_6_undersea_cable.jpg
[2] https://www.singtel.com/about-us/media-centre/news-releases/singtel-clinches-best-enterprise-service-acolade-at-world-comunications-award/sea-me-we-6-consortium-to-install-high-capacity-undersea-cable-system-connecting-singapore-to-france-completion-set-for-q1-2025
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/11/acc_1_submarine_cable_usa_indonesia/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/12/china_data_port/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/21/far_north_fiber_proposal/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/03/new_hawaiki_cable/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YhPFN5tOGZ6zu8Id1TG0PgAAAAQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.submarinecablemap.com/submarine-cable/seamewe-3
[9] https://www.submarinecablemap.com/submarine-cable/seamewe-4
[10] https://www.submarinecablemap.com/submarine-cable/seamewe-5
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YhPFN5tOGZ6zu8Id1TG0PgAAAAQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2013/03/27/egypt_cables_cut_arrest/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2008/12/22/med_cables_cut_again/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Many cables, one canal.
According to the embedded map, it doesn't actually go through the suez canal; it splits in two and goes over land at that point.
I don't think that the map is definitive though, so I guess we won't actually find out until another ship has an issue in that area.
Re: Many cables, one canal.
Of course it does, where do you think they got the digger from.
Re: Many cables, one canal.
Agreed, although I doubt the cable runs through the actual canal as that would be tempting fate.
I would like to see a cable from Ireland to Japan via the northern route of Barents Sea and the Bering Strait. A sort of 'hedging your geographical bets' route.
Re: Many cables, one canal.
> I would like to see a cable from Ireland to Japan via the northern route of Barents Sea and the Bering Strait.
It certainly means the Russian subs wouldn't have far to go...
Diverse routes are also needed
It would be a good idea to avoid Egypt and the Suez Canal altogether and route a portion overland through Oman-UAE-Saudi Arabia-Jordan-Israel.
Re: Diverse routes are also needed
Past Oman you say? Is this base still in operation?
https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/03/revealed_beyond_top_secret_british_intelligence_middleeast_internet_spy_base/
Re: Diverse routes are also needed
Malaysia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan, and Djibouti are all too backwards to consider cooperation with anything Israel was also involved with. They wouldn't want to reap the benefits the system could deliver to their country if they thought a Jew might also benefit.
Okay, I have a question
With all these multi-terabyte per second connections coming in from all over the world, what is the impact on the backend in Europe ?
100 TB here, 100TB there, pretty soon you've got petabytes of capacity at your doorstep.
Does the EU have a global backend measured in petabytes ?
Re: Okay, I have a question
Petabits maybe...
Many cables, one canal.
Redundancy doesn't seem like a bad idea here
Bit of a single point of failure at Suez though.