IMEWE (India-Middle East-Western Europe), a consortium of nine partners comprising top global telecom operators, has announced the launch of a high-capacity, fibre-optic submarine cable that stretches from India to Europe.

The Imewe consortium comprises Bharti Airtel (India), Etisalat (UAE), France Telecom-Orange (France), Ogero (Lebanon), Pakistan Telecommunication, Saudi Telecom Company, Telecom Egypt, Telecom Italia Sparkle and Tata Communications (India).

The 13000 km long three pair Imewe cable has a design capacity of 3.84 terabits per second, and is also the most advanced cable connecting India in South Asia to Italy and France in Western Europe via the Middle East with landings enroute in Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and  Lebanon.

It is the third major submarine cable operational between India and Europe after SMW3 and SMW4 and is expected to play a major role in meeting ever growing bandwidth requirement of the Indian sub continent and Middle East to Europe and beyond.

Ali Amiri, executive vice president of Etisalat's Carrier and Wholesale Services, said, 'The extra capacity and reliability provided by the cable will not only delight customers across the region and bring benefit to the UAE, but will also respond to substantial growth in capacity requirements due to surge in broadband demand witnessed by the region.'

'Etisalat's position in the MEA and Asia region has been established, thanks to its strategy of making long-term investments in markets and technologies that realize return for many years to come,' Amiri noted.

'Our participation in the Imewe is an example of this vision taken from and we expect to see great results in terms of both the performance of our network and an enhanced customer experience,' he added.

Imewe system is set to play a key role in expansion of broadband services among masses in concerned countries, explained Amiri.

With the activation and beginning of operations of Imewe, concerned member countries shall witness a new era in communications that will undoubtedly lay the foundations for faster international connectivity for generations to come, the UAE official said.

Imewe system shall also play a major role of providing continuity of service in case of technical problems in other existing major cables on the route, he added.-TradeArabia News Service