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Omantel takes part in one of the largest cable systems in the world

The new cable is the tenth submarine cable to land in Oman with Omantel

Omantel, the pioneer provider of total communications solutions in the Sultanate of Oman, has teamed up with 16 prominent service providers around the world to construct a new and unique high capacity system: the Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1) cable system. The Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) was inked in Hong Kong to officially mark the commencement of this massive infrastructure project.

Spanning approximately 25,000 km’s, the AAE-1 submarine cable is one of the first unique cable system to connect Hong Kong to Singapore (via Thailand), Africa and Europe via Oman and provide an alternative and low latency short route between Hong Kong/Singapore and Europe

Omantel’s extensive international network will provide additional protection and diversity to the AAE-1 cable system through other systems like EPEG, which is a recently launched major high-capacity system consisting of redundant undersea cables to Iran and onwards terrestrial cable all the way via Azerbaijan and Russia to Frankfurt avoiding existing heavily congested cable systems and crowded bottlenecks on the route between Asia and Europe.

AAE-1 will employ 100Gbps technology with wavelength add/drop branching units along the route with a designed capacity of more than 40 terabits. One of the unique features of the submarine system is that it ends in Singapore but continues further into Asia through terrestrial routes via Thailand connecting Cambodia, Vietnam and then Hong Kong.

Additionally, having two diversified Point of Presence (PoP) in Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore), the landing at Omantel’s Middle East hub and three onward connectivity options to Europe (via France, Italy and Greece) will provide the requisite flexibility for the participating carriers and its customers.

“AAE-1 is one of the largest cable systems ever launched and will stipulate an exponential business growth in participating countries by providing robust, reliable and low latency connectivity. Omantel is very proud to be part of this exciting project”, said Omantel’s CEO Dr. Amer Al Rawas. “Until now, this region has been fed by sea-based systems that have not been able to offer adequate diverse connectivity. The consequence has been extensive outages throughout the region resulting in degraded quality on Internet services for corporate and consumer customers; AAE1 is a strategic investment not only for Omantel, but for Oman as a country and the region as a whole”, continued Dr. Al Rawas.

“Our extensive international network and Oman’s geographical advantage being the entry into the Middle East has made Omantel a natural hub as key interconnection point for carriers from Asia and Europe” Omantel’s CEO concluded.

The target completion date for the AAE-1 cable is in 2016. Once completed, it will connect countries such as Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Pakistan & Oman in Asia, Djibouti and Egypt in Africa, Greece, Italy and France in Europe.

About Omantel Omantel is the pioneer of total communications solutions in the Sultanate of Oman with the widest choice of state of the art services with the broadest network coverage. As the only truly national network in Oman, Omantel offer innovative end-to-end communication solutions serving home, mobile and business customers.

In the international wholesale arena, Omantel is considered one of the most prominent and competitive wholesale telecommunication providers in the Middle East region. In addition, it is one of the leading companies in the field of submarine cable networks and a key participant in several submarine cables as well with direct terrestrial links, which link Asia, Europe and America passing through the Middle East region, meeting the international capacity requirements of clients locally and internationally, thereby sustaining the Company’s leading position among its competitors.