Major Middle East telecom service providers including Telecom Egypt, Etisalat, Omantel, Ooredoo and Mobily have joined a consortium that will build a new and unique high capacity cable system connecting Hong Kong, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

The Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1) system will be ready for service in 2016, said a statement from PCCW Global, which is leading the consortium.

PCCW Global is an international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider.

AAE -1 will be the first high capacity cable system to link all of the major South East Asian nations to Africa and Europe via the Middle East.

It will facilitate and provide support for the unprecedented growth of Asia-Africa trade. Providing robust, reliable,  low latency connectivity which underpins one of the highest growth and most active global trade routes, AAE-1 will also bring much needed protection and diversity to the existing heavily congested subsea cable systems connecting the various countries along the route, it said.

PCCW Global plans to land the cable at the Cape D'Aguilar Cable Station in Hong Kong and then extend connectivity to its city data center, making Hong Kong a key telecommunications hub in addition to Singapore and Marseille in France along the AAE-1 network. The submarine cable will be 25,000 km long.

It will be the first submarine cable linking the Far East to Europe at the possible lowest rate of delay and high transfer capacities ranging up to more than 40 terabits which will contribute significantly to the growth of the business volume in the countries passing through.

Bringing together 16 service providers from around the world, PCCW Global hosted a signing ceremony for the Construction and Maintenance Agreement in Hong Kong yesterday to officially mark a new chapter of the AAE-1 Project.

The submarine cable, once completed in 2016, will connect Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia , Oman, United Arab Emirates , Qatar, Yemen , Djibouti, Egypt , Greece, Italy and France.-TradeArabia News Service