| 1997-003 | January 14, 1997 |
When completed, the SEA-ME-WE3 cable will be the longest in the world, connecting 33 countries including Japan, other Asia nations, Australia, and European countries over total distance of 38,000 km. In Japan, KDD will land the cable at KDD Okinawa Submarine Cable Landing Station.
Total construction cost of the cable is expected to reach approximately US$1,300 million (approximately 150 billion yen). By employing an optical amplification system(*1) and the world's first wavelength division multiplexing system(*2), the cable will initially provide capacity on the order of 20 Gbps (equal to approximately 240,000 telephone circuits). The cable's entire route is slated to being operation in March 1999.
KDD will invest US$60 million (approximately 7 billion yen), the largest share among the member countries, to obtain a total of 16,980 circuits.
The cable will allow KDD to meet the increase in demand for telecommunications to and from Asia and Europe with the advent of the multimedia age. At the same time, optical cable routes will be secured to Middle and Near East and South Asia, which had been served primarily by satellites, to improve the quality of communications to these regions.
The optical cable route to Europe will be backed up by the conventional route linking Japan to Europe via TPC-5CN and the United States. This configuration will allow KDD to provide even more stable international telecommunication service to Europe.
As the SEA-ME-WE3 cable will be connected in Japan to such large-capacity cables as TPC-5CN, it will give a big boost to Japan's status as a telecommunication hub.
*1: Optical amplification system
A method of amplifying optical signals, which attenuate as they travel over a cable, as optical signals without feeding them through electric circuits. This system makes it possible to transmit optical signals on relatively low and constant power consumption even when the communication capacity increases.
*2: Optical Wavelength division multiplexing system
A method whereby many optical signals with different wavelengths are transmitted over a single optical fiber. The system enables the transmission of a large amount of information.
| 1. | Operation scheduled to begin | : | March 1999 |
| 2. | Capacity | : | Initially 20 Gbps |
| 3. | Telephone circuit equivalent | : | Initially equivalent to 240,000 circuits |
| 4. | Total length | : | Approximately 38,000 km |
| 5. | Landed and connected countries | : | Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, France, U.K. Belgium, Germany [Total of 33 countries and regions] |
| 6. | Total construction cost | : | Approximately US$1,300 million (approximately 150 billion yen) |
| 7. | Principal parties to the construction and maintenance agreement | : | KDD, DBP TELEKOM, SINGAPORE TELECOM, Telekom Malaysia, VSNL (India), France Telecom, Marconi (Portugal), BT (U.K.), MPT (Myanmar) etc. [Total of 88 telecommunications carriers from 64 countries] |