Page 64 - SAMENA Trends - May-June 2024

ARTICLE SAMENA TRENDS

adopting the shortest direct route between westwards from Mumbai, through the Red Out with the old, in with the new
Asia, Africa, and Europe. It also supports Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, before Of course, the development of these
customized cooperative solutions and landing at its final destination in Savona, four cables is only the beginning of our
provides more flexible business models to Italy. submarine cable journey in 2024.
help customers achieve autonomous and
customizable network-building conditions. Combined, these two systems will provide Cables built around the turn of the century
more than 200Tbps of capacity over more that were once state-of-the-art are now
The cable was activated at the end of than 16,000km, offering additional diversity. beginning to reach the end of their lifespan,
2022 and, since then, plans to expand the As the world’s fastest growing digital often requiring major investments to
cable yet further to Singapore have been economy and occupying a crucial junction remain operational. While advances in
announced for 2024. This will expand the for international data traffic, linking technology – particularly Submarine Line
cable’s role considerably, making it a major Southeast Asia to Europe, India is a major Terminal Equipment – are allowing these
Asia-Europe interconnection – indeed, data hub in its own right. Both APAC and cables to last longer than ever before, even
making it the fastest express route between Europe are already highly developed when beyond the quarter-century milestone, the
Southeast Asia and East Africa. it comes to submarine cable infrastructure, need for new cables will only increase as
but the sheer scale of the data growth we approach 2030.
Singapore is already a major data hub for expected over the coming decade is
CMI, which has invested in over 10 cables making the further development of these Finally, it is also worth mentioning the
there connecting Inner Asia to Europe. state-of-the-art cables highly attractive. incredible importance that cable route
Using these various cable resources, CMI diversity continues to have for both public
can provide connectivity from Europe to IAX and IEX will play a major role in meeting and private sector customers around
Africa via Djibouti to Asia via numerous that need, offering customers alternatives the world. Not only does having multiple
routes. on some of the most popular data routes routes to choose from drive competition
in the world. and therefore more competitive pricing,
It is worth noting that this is just a small part but it also allows greater flexibility and
of PEACE’s overall expansion plans, which A new data backbone for Africa, Asia, and control of where and how your data
include growing the system to 25,000km in the Middle East is transported. With network security
length and landing in over 20 countries. For CMI, these new resources will playing an increasingly important role in
operate synergistically with their existing operators’ decision making, new routes will
PEACE is being co-created by a consortium carrier infrastructure, like the South East undoubtedly be developed to cater for these
of 12 industry partners, including CMI, Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 5 more diverse customer needs. These are
China Unicom, China Telecom, Ooredoo, (SeMeWe-5) and Asia-Africa-Europe 1 all additional motivating factors for CMI’s
Orange, and Telecom Egypt. (AAE-1) cables. When combined, these broader investment in the Asia–Europe and
cable routes will serve to enrich regional Asia–Africa data transport markets.
A wealth of opportunities: The IAX & IEX network connectivity along the Middle
system Eastern and African coastlines and provide Therefore, as older cables approach the
Finally, this year will see the further advantageous regional transmission end of their lifespan and enterprises
development of a pair of interrelated networks for local carriers. demand even higher standards of latency
systems of great interest to the global and capacity, with governments prioritising
submarine cable community: the India Asia Naturally, the advent of new, more advanced network resilience globally, it can be
Xpress (IAX) cable, expected to be ready data transport systems will require the anticipated that numerous cable projects
for service later this year, and the India evolution of the relevant interconnectivity will be annouced in the coming years. When
Europe Xpress (IEX) system, which will be hubs themselves. In Marseille, for example combined with initiatives such as 2Africa,
ready next year. – a city where all three of the above PEACE, and IEX/IAX, these cables will
systems converge in Europe – CMI is establish a network that significantly
IAX will stretch from Mumbai, India, to the making significant investments to offer a enhances the interconnected connectivity
Maldives, and onwards to Singapore, with wide range of IP services and strengthen between Africa, Asia, and Europe.
additional branches extending to Thailand the synergy between its existing and new
and Sri Lanka. IEX, meanwhile, will travel cable systems.

64 MAY-JUNE 2024