In its planned configuration, Sea-Me-We 5 will connect  Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh,  Sri-Lanka, India, Pakistan, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen,  Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy and France.

The  international consortium, of which Orange is now a member, plans to  operate this new 20 000 km-long fiber optic cable at the end of 2016.

Securing the route for internet traffic as demand from Orange customers increases

Orange  is also co-owner of three other submarine cables that run between Asia  and Europe: Sea-Me-We 3, Sea-Me-We 4 and IMeWe, which were launched in  1999, 2005 and 2010 respectively.

In addition to providing extra  capacity, the Sea-Me-We 5 cable provides Orange with an alternative  route that guarantees the protection of voice and data traffic passing  through the other cables in the area. Moreover, thanks to the  inter-connection point in Djibouti, Orange can open up a new route  towards the Indian Ocean to support the booming growth of broadband  services in the islands of Reunion and Mayotte.

An important part of Orange's submarine network

In  France, the Sea-Me-We 5 cable will use a Point of Presence located in  the Group's telecommunications network group in Marseilles (Bouches du  Rhône department). The connection will be established via a terrestrial  cable running from the landing station, which is located nearby in the  Var department. By diversifying points of access, this cable will  further secure access to international broadband networks and will  facilitate access to networks in France for Asian and African operators.

The  cable design is based on the latest 100 Gbps very high-speed technology  and will initially offer a capacity of 24 Tbps. In addition, the cable  benefits from an advanced Wavelength Division Mulitplexing (WDM) system  that enables cable capacity to be increased without additional submarine  work. This means that the consortium will easily be able to increase  capacity to reflect the latest technological developments.

Through  this new development, Orange confirms its position as a leading player  in the submarine cable market. In this role, the Group aims to develop  the quality of service of its worldwide network, while optimizing costs  and adapting its presence in order to absorb the continually increasing  volumes of data being exchanged. These efforts to improve its global  network will also facilitate the use of new digital services for  end-users.

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