Telekom Malaysia and NEC have completed the landing of a submarine cable system at Melaka, Malaysia.
The cable system is a portion of the 20,000 km Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 5 (SEA-ME-WE 5) cable announced by a consortium of telcos in March 2014.
TM EVP of global and wholesale Rozaimy Rahman said, "The telecommunications landscape in Malaysia is fast evolving and we are delighted to be able to support this development together with SEA-ME-WE 5 consortium members."
"The installation of this new cable system presents greater opportunities to empower the Malaysian people through enhanced connectivity with South East Asia, the Middle East and Europe," he noted.
The SEA-ME-WE 5 cable, which is scheduled to commence operation in the second quarter of 2016, will connect 17 countries through Points-of-Presence (PoPs) from Singapore to the Middle East to France and Italy in Western Europe.
Upon the completion, the 20,000 km cable will provide broadband communication with a design capacity of 24 Tbps utilizing the latest 100Gbps coherent transmission technology, according to a joint statement on Wednesday.
Alcatel Submarine Networks and NEC have been contracted to provide and construct the cable system. Alcatel-Lucent has begun the construction of the western end of the cable, running from Sri Lanka to France.
NEC is in charge of the construction of the eastern links, running from Singapore to Sri Lanka, including the Malaysia branch, where the shore end cable successfully landed in Melaka on October 30, 2015.
SEA-ME-WE 5 comprises a consortium of the carriers of countries where the cable will land, including China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, Singtel and Telecom Italia Sparkle.