Financial Times

SLT launches local operations of SEA- ME -WE 4
Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) recently inaugurated the local operations of the SEA-ME-WE 4 [South East Asia (SEA) Middle East (ME) Western Europe (WE)] fibre optic submarine cable project – a multi-regional connectivity resource milestone spanning 20,000 kilometers.

The state of the art submarine cable system is built and managed by a consortium of 16 operators representing 15 countries. Attending the inauguration were 50 or more delegates from SLT’s consortium partners, many of whom are also regional powerhouses, SLT said in a statement.

It said this project, a vast fiscal and developmental undertaking for all the telecommunications companies involved, will lead to a significant increase in regional bandwidth capacity availability. At the time of completion the project showed a commitment to improve infrastructure in keeping with demand as it was rolled out on schedule. SLT has long been a key player in the management structure of the SEA ME WE consortium. The company is the Chair of the Finance and Administration Committee (F&AC), which manages the project financing.

This committee is responsible for the completion of this US$ 500 million project – a project which required an SLT investment of US$ 30 million (Rs. 3 billion).
This cable will allow for another avenue of redundancy, which will further secure existing connections, such as this link’s predecessor SEA ME WE 3 and other on hand line-of-sight microwave links. There will also be an upgrade in capacity as the newly commissioned cable supports 1.28 Terabits per second traffic capacity, while the existing capacity is currently 160 Gigabits per second capacity on submarine cables provided by SEA ME WE 3.

The improved capacity will also lead to a further extension of the broadband capability of the IP backbone network, which will allow for higher speeds and better effectiveness in transfers between countries.

An advantage for SLT’s customers is that the company expects to pass along to its corporate or high capacity customers more competitive IP Leased Circuit tariffs to other countries. In addition, the subscribers at the Sri Lankan side of the cable will have better connectivity which will allow for added access to multimedia content and broadband services such as movies, music, etc. while actual real-time audio and video streaming facilities will be further enhanced, the statement said.

The 16 companies that form the consortium include Algeria Telecom (AT), Bharti (India), Bangladesh Telecom (BTTB), Telecom Thailand (CAT), France Telecom, MCI, Pakistan Telecom (PTCL), Singapore Telecom (SingTel), Sri Lankan Telecom (SLT), Saudi Telecom (STC), Telecom Egypt, Telecom Italia Sparkle, Telecom Malaysia, Tunisia Telecom, VSNL (India) and Etisalat (UAE).

Back to Business