South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 5 (SEA-ME-WE 5) is an

optical fibre An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

submarine communications cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables were laid beginning in the 1850s and car ...

system that carries telecommunications between

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The cable is approximately 20,000 kilometres long and provides broadband communications with a design capacity of 24 Tbit/s (over 3 fiber pairs) between

South East Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. The portion from France to Sri Lanka was constructed by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN) and the portion from Sri Lanka to Singapore by

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

. Construction commenced on 6 June 2014 and completed in December 2016. An official launch event was held in

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

on 16 January 2017. The design capacity was upgraded from 24 Tbit/s to 36.6 Tbit/s in September 2019 using

Ciena Ciena Corporation is an American optical networking systems and software company based in Hanover, Maryland. The company has been described as a vital player in optical connectivity. The company reported revenues of $4 billion and more than 8,50 ...

's GeoMesh Extreme 300G technology.

Landing points and operators

Incidents

November 2022

In November 2022, it was reported that SEA-ME-WE 5 was damaged on land near one of its landing stations in Egypt. This caused significant traffic disruptions lasting several hours to many countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. SEA-ME-WE 5 Route Map

April 2024

In April 2024, the SEA-ME-WE 5 cable developed a fault in the

Strait of Malacca The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, long and from wide, between the Malay Peninsula to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connecting the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the South China Sea (Pa ...

due to water penetrating the insulation of the cable, causing a short circuit which led to a complete loss of communication. As a result, connectivity was lost between

Kuakata Kuakata () is a town of Patuakhali District, Patuakhali located in southern Bangladesh known for its panoramic Kuakata Beach, sea beach. Kuakata beach is a sandy expanse long and wide. The beach offers unobstructed views of both the sunrise an ...

, Bangladesh and the final landing point in

Tuas Tuas ( ) is a planning area located within the West Region of Singapore. It is bounded by the Western Water Catchment to its north, Pioneer to its east and the Straits of Johor to its west. Tuas also shares a maritime boundary with the Weste ...

, Singapore. The fault led to Bangladesh losing 1.7 Tbps of international capacity, reducing the country’s internet capacity by approximately a third. The cable was reported to have been repaired on June 28, following lengthy delays related to Indonesia's preferential

cabotage Cabotage () is the transport of goods or passengers between two places in the same country. The term originally applied to shipping along coastal routes, port to port, but now applies to aviation, railways, and road transport as well. Cabotage rig ...

policy and administrative procedures.

References

External links