Seventeen of the world’s most prominent telecom service providers, among them OTEGLOBE, are joining force to construct a new and unique high capacity cable system, Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1).
The AAE-1 submarine cable spanning approximately 25,000 km, will be one of the first unique cable systems connecting Hong Kong, Singapore, Middle East, Africa and Europe and providing an alternative low latency route between Far East and Europe. Its completion will provide additional protection and diversity to the existing heavily congested cable systems.
The seventeen major incumbent carriers including China Unicom, Chuan Wei, Djibouti Telecom, Etisalat, Mobily, Omantel, OTEGLOBE, Ooredoo, PCCW Global, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), Telecom Egypt, TOT, Viettel and some other carriers, have signed the Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) in Hong Kong on January 27, 2014 to officially mark the commencement of the AAE-1 Project.
AAE-1 will deploy 100Gbps technology with wavelength add/drop branching units along the lowest latency route with design capacity of over 40 terabits. AAE-1 is one of the largest cable systems launched and will stimulate an exponential business growth in participating countries by providing robust, reliable and lowest latency connectivity. Additionally, having two diversified Points of Presence (PoP) in Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore) and three onward connectivity options in Europe (via France, Italy and Greece) will provide the requisite flexibility for these carriers and their customers.
The target completion date for AAE-1 cable construction is the year 2016. When completed, it will connect Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy and France.
OTEGLOBE’s CEO Mr. Dino Andreou states “By capitalizing on country’s geographic position and with our eyes firmly on the telecommunication needs of the future, we have managed to bring to Greece one of the world’s largest cable systems, the AAE-1, and to reinforce Greece’s and OTEGLOBE’s position as an alternative, reliable hub in the Mediterranean. The benefit is indisputably significant both to our country and OTEGLOBE, but also to our customers, who will enjoy a higher quality interconnection between Asia, Africa and Europe.”