AAE-1 Consortium opts for Xtera optical transport for terrestrial segments

Xtera Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: XCOM) says it will supply optical transport systems for the three terrestrial segments of the Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1) submarine cable system.

As its name implies, the 25,000-km AAE-1 submarine cable system, scheduled for completion in 2016, will link Asia, the Middle East, East Africa and Europe. Xtera says it will supply its Raman-based amplification and flex-rate line cards for terrestrial segments in Egypt, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. The technology will support channel rates of 200G (see "TE Subcom awarded AAE-1 submarine cable system contract").

The Malaysia-Singapore segment will directly terminate in two data centers in Singapore.

AAE-1 consortium members include China Unicom, CIL, Djibouti Telecom, Etisalat, GT5L, Mobily, Omantel, Ooredoo, OTEGLOBE, PCCW Global, Pakistan Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (PTCL), Reliance Jio, Retelit, Tele Yemen, Telecom Egypt, TOT, Viettel, VTC, and VNPT.

"We are proud to be part of a cable system initiative that will provide additional empowerment for the economies of all the nations along its route. When completed before the end of this year, the AAE-1 network will connect Hong Kong (SAR of China), Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy and France," said. Joseph Chan and Pan Ying, co-chairs of AAE-1 Management Committee. "The terrestrial routes across Thailand represent a unique network design feature and will reduce latency between South East Asia and India/Africa/Europe."

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