The operator Orange announced that it had pulled the submarine cable called SEA-ME-WE, 21,700 km long, from Marseille on Monday. Despite its impressive appearance, it should be almost imperceptible to the average user.
Orange, more particularly its dedicated subsidiary Orange Marine, is one of the global flagships in the installation and maintenance of submarine cables. The French historic operator proves this once again with the landing of the SEA-ME-WE-6 submarine cable (for South-East Asia, Middle East and Western Europe), from its infrastructures and the Prado beaches, this Monday April 29, 2024 in Marseille. With a capacity of 130 Tbit/s (130,0000 Gbit/s), it must connect France to Singapore, via Egypt. Will it change anything in the connectivity of the French?
A new small but strong submarine cable, which leaves Marseille
Designed using the latest underwater fiber optic technologies, the SEA-ME-WE 6 cable is the skinny type, in appearance at least: 17 millimeters in diameter (35 mm once reinforced), 10 pairs of fiber, approximately 13 Tbit/s per fiber pair and a total capacity of 130 Tbit/s. Yes, it’s pretty tough in the end.
Designed thanks to the investment of 900 million euros from a consortium including Orange (but also China Unicom, Telecom Egypt (Egypt), Singtel (Singapore) and Mobily (Saudi Arabia), the cable is long of 21,700 kilometers The installation of the first part of the system, 3,000 km long and which must head towards Egypt, will start just after landing in Marseille, which was the responsibility of Orange.
It will connect Marseille and France to Singapore, passing through different branches located in Mazara (Italy), Port Said and Ras Gharib (Egypt), Djibouti, Pakistan, Mumbai (India) and even Cox’s Bazar (Bengladesh). ). But what will it, or rather can it, change anything for ordinary mortals?
A change perhaps for fine gamers and streamers
In detail therefore, the SEA-ME-WE 6 submarine cable is equipped with very high speed optical fiber technology, at “ very low latency ”, which on paper should help “ meet the growing needs of customers in the digital economy », on a strategic route. In Marseille, Orange will, thanks to a latest generation urban fiber optic ring, provide access to the directly connected data centers of the Marseille city.
Concretely, the average user will not really see the difference before and after laying the cable. Even if a latency time of less than 50 ms is mentioned, only gamers, streamers or professionals will be able to notice it.
“ Our network will allow our wholesale customers (Editor’s note: professionals) to join numerous international networks in Asia, Africa and the Americas », adds the Director of International Networks at Orange, Jean-Louis Le Roux. Marseille and France are becoming a major connectivity hub in Europe, and this is good news for the country’s competitiveness in the telecoms sector.
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