South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) is an optical fibre submarine communications cable  system that carries telecommunications between Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria  and France.[1]  It is intended to be a complement to rather than a replacement for the SEA-WE-ME 3 cable.

The cable is approximately 18,800 kilometres long, and provides the primary Internet backbone between South East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Europe.

Outages

On 30 January 2008, Internet services were widely disrupted in the Middle East and in the Indian subcontinent following damage to the SEA-ME-WE 4 and FLAG Telecom cables in the Mediterranean Sea. Disruptions of 70 percent in Egypt, and 60 percent in India were reported along with problems in Bahrain, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.[5][6] In India, small users felt the impact while ISPs could service large users who have more lucrative contracts.[7]

While the respective contributions of the two cable systems to this blackout is unclear, network outage graphs show anomalies at 0430 UTC and again at 0800 UTC.[8] The FALCON submarine communications cable was reported severed off the coast of Dubai in the Persian Gulf on 1 February 2008, making it the third over a two day period.[9]

Though the cause of the damage to SEA-ME-WE 4 or FLAG has not been declared by either cable operator and 12 hours of video before and after the incident show no ships being in the area,[10] a number of sources speculate these were caused by a ship's anchor near Alexandria,[5][10] while the Kuwait government attributes the breaks to "weather conditions and maritime traffic".[11] The New York Times reported that the damage occurred to the two systems separately near Alexandria and Marseilles.[12] The water near Alexandria is restricted and Egypt knew of "no passing ships" at the time.[7]

For a number of days, SEA-ME-WE 3 was the only remaining cable connecting Europe to the Middle East via Egypt. Data transmission capacity between India and Europe was reduced by 75 percent, causing much of the traffic between these sites to be rerouted through the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.[9]
[edit] 19 December 2008

On 19 December 2008, the cable was again severed, simultaneously with SEA-ME-WE 3, the FLAG FEA cable, and the GO-1 cable.[13][14] It is expected to be operating again by December 25.[15]
[edit] April 14 2010 shunt fault

On April 14, 2010  the cable had a shunt fault approximately 1,886 kilometers from Alexandria towards Palermo, Italy, on the segment between Alexandria and Marseilles


Management and administration

The SEA-ME-WE 4 cable system was proposed and developed by the SEA-ME-WE 4 Consortium. The Consortium continues to maintain and operate the system. It comprises 16 telecommunications companies:[18][4]

    * Algérie Télécom, Algeria
    * Bharti Infotel Limited, India
    * Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), Bangladesh
    * CAT Telecom Public Company Limited, Thailand
    * Emirates Telecommunication Corporation (ETISALAT), UAE
    * France Telecom - Long Distance Networks, France
    * MCI, UK
    * Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, Pakistan
    * Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), Singapore
    * Sri Lanka Telecom Limited (SLT), Sri Lanka
    * Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Saudi Arabia
    * Telecom Egypt (TE), Egypt
    * Telecom Italia Sparkle S.p.A., Italy
    * Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), Malaysia
    * Tunisie Telecom, Tunisia
    * Tata Communications previously Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), India

For more information visit   www.seamewe4.com