TM collaborates with 15 global telcos for submarine-cable system

by **Cals** Fri 07 Mar 2014, 13:52

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Charlotte Chong of theedgemalaysia.com

Friday, 07 March 2014 13:43

KUALA LUMPUR (Mar 7): Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) is collaborating with 15 global telecommunication companies to establish a new submarine-cable system.

The proposed project is known as the South East Asia – Middle East – Western Europe 5 (SEA-ME-WE 5).

The collaboration was made official with the signing of the construction and maintenance agreement by consortium members, which include Bangladesh Submarine Cable Co Ltd, China Telecommunications Global Ltd, and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.

TM chairman Datuk Seri Halim Shafie said in his welcome speech that the higher bandwidth capacity of the cable system via the 24Tbps (Terabits per second) and 100Gbps (Gigabits per second) wave-length technology, would provide better user experience of enhanced Internet speed and quality.

“The resilient connectivity of SEA-ME-WE 5 will not only benefit TM, but the nation as a whole,” Halim said.

He, however, declined to comment on the portion of investment that TM planned to allocate for the system.

With an approximate distance of 20,000 km, the SEA-ME-WE 5 will provide connectivity to 17 countries across South East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

The previous submarine cable SEA-ME-WE 4, was completed by a consortium of 16 telecommunication companies in December 2005. The project had involved an estimated cost of RM1.63 billion (US$500 million) then.

Today, Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd analyst Tan J Young, quoting news reports, said the new cable would be more expensive than SEA-ME-WE 4.

"Another positive news flow in a week that TM is expanding its presence and global reachability. This would further improve its global and wholesale division’s contribution which currently stands at 16% as of FY13," Tan wrote in a note.