Airtel activates SEA-ME-WE-6 cable in Chennai, India
What is SEA-ME-WE-6?
South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 6 (SEA-ME-WE 6) is in progress submarine cable system providing network capacity routes in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Western Europe. Construction of the proposed 19,200 km cable began in February 2022.
Keep up to date with Lightwave+BTR’s submarine cabling coverage.
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Bharti Airtel landed the new SEA-ME-WE 6 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-West Europe-6, or SMW6) in Chennai, enhancing its network presence with diversified capacity in the global submarine cable system.
The company landed the cable in Mumbai on December 30, 2024.
SubCom, a supplier of subsea fiber optic cable data systems performed the engineering, manufacture and installation of SEA-ME-WE-6. The 21,700 Rkm submarine cable system connects India to Singapore and France (Marseille) crossing Egypt through terrestrial cables.
As a key member of the consortium of the SEA-ME-WE-6 cable system, Airtel has invested in the core cable and has additionally co-built a private network of four Fiber Pairs between Singapore, Chennai, and Mumbai. This cable system will bring 220 Tbps of global capacity to India.
Airtel’s global network spans five continents. The service provider has investments in 34 cables globally with some of the recent ones including 2Africa, Southeast Asia-Japan Cable 2 (SJC2) and Equiano.
Besides the cables that connect India to key regions like Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and US, Airtel’s global subsea network investments also include large cable systems like i2i Cable Network (i2icn), Europe India Gateway (EIG), IMEWE, SEA-ME-WE-4, AAG, Unity, EASSy, Gulf Bridge International (GBI) and Middle East North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA Cable) and others.
In January, the cable was installed at landing points in France, Maldives, and Sri Lanka, with more landings to be completed prior to the expected initiation of service in the first quarter of 2026.
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About the Author
Sean BuckleySean Buckley
Sean is the Editor-in-Chief of Lightwave. He establishes and executes Lightwave's editorial strategy across its website, email newsletters, events, and other information products. Before coming to Lightwave in July 2023, he served as editor of Broadband Communities. Earlier, he served as senior editor of FierceTelecom and the editor of the former Telecommunications Magazine. He got his start in the optical industry in 1998 when he became the editor of enterprise and optical networks at Information Gatekeepers. He has a BA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and lives in Dracut, Mass, with his wife, two sons, and his cat, Dove.
