Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), provider of International Telecommunications Services and an Internet Service Provider in India, and 12 other international telecommunications carriers have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Bali, Indonesia, to jointly work on the construction of a new submarine cable linking South East Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe.

The cable project will connect 12 countries - Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy and France.

The other partners in the cable project are PT Indosat, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, Telekom Malaysia Berhad, Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board, Bharti Enterprise, Sri Lanka Telecom, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd, Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, Saudi Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telecom Italia S. p A and France Telecom.

It is currently under planning that this cable project will be built using Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology, with a proposed design capacity of 1.28 Terabits per second (Tbps). The network will provide much-needed bandwidth as the existing cables along the same route become saturated. Currently, data traffic from South East Asia and the Middle East to Europe is routed via smaller capacity cables, mainly SEA-ME-WE 3 and FLAG. This cable project is expected to be Ready For Service (RFS) in 2004. 

Speaking on the occasion, SK Gupta, Managing Director, VSNL said, "VSNL has the infrastructure, the existing relationships and the learning of 132 years of experience in International telephony, giving it a distinctive edge in the Indian marketplace.

With international telephony becoming more and more affordable and India achieving greater predominance on the world map as a international telecom hub, VSNL identifies the need to gear up to meet the increasing international traffic. Our investment in the SEA-ME-WE4 cable is a significant step in achieving our business objectives." 

(CNS)