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July 20, 2005 Marseilles, France -- Alcatel recently announced that the Sea-Me-We4 and Med Cable international submarine cable networks are now fully deployed, having successfully landed in the city of Marseilles, France. The company, which had turnkey responsibility for the realization of the two networks, says the landings strengthen the city's role as a key hub for international communications with Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
According to a press release, the Sea-Me-We4 submarine cable network, installed in 18 months, spans nearly 20,000 km - approximately half of the circumference of the globe - linking 14 countries from Singapore to France via Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Italy, with 16 landing points. Alcatel says the system is designed to last 25 years with full reliability, and with 32x the initial capacity of the previous Sea-Me-We 3 system, which was installed 7 years ago. The company says the network will meet growing telecommunications demand from India and Middle-Eastern countries. The network is operated by 16 carriers, including France Telecom.
The Med Cable network, deployed for mobile operator Orascom, connects Marseilles to Algiers and Annaba in Algeria, spanning approximately 1,300 km. Further strengthening the connections among Algeria and European and international networks, the network is designed to enable future extensions towards the east and west of the Mediterranean basin.
Alcatel awarded the landing operations, including the cable protection and the onshore landing, to Louis Dreyfus Travocean, a Marseilles-based company founded in 1977, and a subsidiary of Louis Dreyfus Armateurs. The operations were coordinated with the Marseilles local authorities to optimize the deployment, according to Alcatel.
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