Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1) is a 25,000 km submarine communications cable system from South East Asia to Europe across Egypt, connecting Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, and France.
 | |
| Cable type | Submarine Fibre-optic |
|---|---|
| First traffic | 23 June 2017 |
| Design capacity | 100 Tbit/s (20 Tbit/s per fibre pair) |
| Area served | Africa, South East Asia, Middle East, Western Europe |
| Owner(s) | Consortium |
| Website | www |
The AAE-1 cable has a design capacity of 40 Tbit/s, across 5 fibre pairs, to supply the broadband market across Asia, Africa and Europe. In June 2017, it was launched for commercial services and was considered the longest submarine cable in the world, until it was surpassed by 2Africa.[1]
AAE-1 terminates at carrier neutral data centers in regional hubs, such as Telecom House in Hong Kong, Equinix in Singapore and Interxion in France.[2]
In May 2022, AAE-1 was upgraded by the consortium through Infinera's ICE6 800G solution, increasing design capacity to over 100 Tbit/s.[3][4]
Consortium members
editChina Unicom initiated the AAE-1 cable project in 2011, with the support and partnership from Telecom Egypt. The AAE-1 consortium, which obtained the construction and maintenance contract in 2014, consists of over 17 carriers, including China Unicom, Djibouti Telecom, Etisalat, Global Transit, HyalRoute, Jio, Metfone, Mobily, Omantel, Ooredoo, Oteglobe, PCCW Global, PTCL, Retelit, Telecom Egypt, TeleYemen, TOT, VNPT, Viettel.[5]
Landing points and operators
editAAE-1 does not land directly in Singapore, instead it connects through a terrestrial extension between Malaysia and Singapore.[6]
| Location | Operator & Technical Partner |
|---|---|
| Marseille, France | Omantel[7] |
| Bari, Italy | Retelit[8] |
| Chania, Greece | OTEGLOBE[9] |
| Abu Talat, Egypt
Zafarana, Egypt |
Telecom Egypt[10] |
| Jeddah, Saudi Arabia | Mobily[11] |
| Djibouti City, Djibouti | Djibouti Telecom[12] |
| Aden, Yemen | TeleYemen[13] |
| Al Bustan, Oman | Omantel[14] |
| Fujairah, UAE | Etisalat by e&[15] |
| Doha, Qatar | Ooredoo Qatar[16] |
| Karachi, Pakistan | Pakistan Telecommunicaton Company Limited[17] |
| Mumbai, India | Reliance Jio[18] |
| Ngwe Saung, Myanmar | China Unicom[19] |
| Satun, Thailand | National Telecom Public Company Limited[20] |
| Songkhla, Thailand | National Telecom Public Company Limited[20] |
| Butterworth, Malaysia | TIME dotCom[21] |
| Sihanoukville, Cambodia | HyalRoute[22] |
| Vung Tau, Vietnam | Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group[23] |
| Cape D'Aguilar, Hong Kong | PCCW Global[24] |
Incidents
editOn 26 February 2024, it was reported that multiple submarine cables in the Red Sea, including AAE-1, SEACOM and EIG were damaged. As a result, 25% of the internet traffic between Europe, Asia and the Middle East has been affected. The cause of the damage is currently unknown, and due to the sensitivity of the location, the cable operators are currently unable to provide a repair timeline.[25][26][27]
One hypothesis for the source of the damage is that the cable was severed by the dragging anchor of the MV Rubymar vessel which was abandoned by its crew after Houthi forces attacked it with two anti-ship missiles. [28] As of 13 May 2024, repairs to AAE-1 were still pending[29] due to the refusal of permits from the Yemeni Government.[30]
In July 2024, repairs were successfully carried out on the AAE-1 cable.[31][32][33]
References
edit- ^ "Asia-Africa-Europe-1 Consortium launches commercial services on AAE-1 submarine cable system". Lightwave. 3 July 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
- ^ "AAE-1 - Submarine Networks". www.submarinenetworks.com. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "Press Release: Asia-Africa-Europe-1 Consortium Selects Infinera's ICE6 Solution for Largest-scale Upgrade on a Submarine Cable System". www.infinera.com. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
- ^ Malik, Saf (10 May 2022). "Infinera's ICE6 to breathe life into AAE-1 cable". Capacity Media. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
- ^ "AAE-1".
- ^ "Singapore - Submarine Networks". www.submarinenetworks.com. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "Omantel First GCC Operator to Land Undersea Cable in Europe with AAE-1 in Marseille". Omantel. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "AAE-1 submarine cable enters into service | Retelit". AAE-1 submarine cable enters into service. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ kcl@rk (18 May 2017). "HGC and OTEGLOBE Partner For Connectivity On AAE-1". SubTel Forum. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "Telecom Egypt concludes the acquisition of Middle East and North Africa Submarine Cable "MENA"". ir.te.eg. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "Mobily connects to AAE-1 in Jeddah". Capacity Media. 25 July 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "Our Network - AAE1 - Djibouti Telecom". international.djiboutitelecom.dj. 1 July 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "AAE-1". www.aaeone.com. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "Omantel lands AAE-1 subsea cable in Oman". www.tradearabia.com. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "Etisalat enhances International Connectivity to UAE with AAE-1 Submari". Telecom Review. 18 July 2017. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ kcl@rk (18 July 2016). "Ooredoo Launches AAE-1 Submarine Cable in Qatar". SubTel Forum. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "PTCL inks agreement to build one of the largest Submarine Cable System". ptcl.com.pk. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "Reliance Jio launches AAE-1, a 25,000km long submarine cable system". India Today. 30 June 2017. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "AAE-1 Cable Landed in Myanmar - Submarine Networks". www.submarinenetworks.com. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ a b "New cable plan to boost internet link". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "TIME dotCom Confirms Investmest in AAE-1 - Submarine Networks". www.submarinenetworks.com. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "Cambodia to get link into AAE-1 Cable - Telecom Review Asia Pacific". www.telecomreviewasia.com. 15 March 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ VietnamPlus (3 July 2017). "VNPT to deploy AAE-1 submarine cable | Sci-Tech | Vietnam+ (VietnamPlus)". VietnamPlus. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ "PCCW Global lands AAE-1 cable system in Hong Kong". Capacity Media. 13 July 2017. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- ^ Thaler, Shannon (4 March 2024). "Red Sea cables damaged, causing 'significant' disruption to global internet traffic". Retrieved 7 March 2024.
- ^ Ahmed, Samra (4 March 2024). "Submarine Cable Damage In Red Sea Disrupts Internet Traffic". SubTel Forum. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
- ^ Swinhoe, Dan (26 February 2024). "At least one subsea fiber cable damaged in the Red Sea, some reports blame Houthi rebels". Data Center Dynamics. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
- ^ Madory, Doug (31 March 2024). "What Caused the Red Sea Submarine Cable Cuts?". kentik. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
- ^ Belson, David (14 May 2024). "East African Internet connectivity again impacted by submarine cable cuts". The Cloudflare Blog. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
- ^ Solon, Olivia (7 May 2024). "Full Repairs to Damaged Red Sea Internet Cables Delayed by Yemen Political Splits". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
- ^ "Finally, Progress With Red Sea Cable Repairs". SubTel Forum. 17 July 2024. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
- ^ Bünte, Oliver (18 July 2024). "AAE-1: Submarine cable in the Red Sea operational again". heise online. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
- ^ "Ministries of Communications & Transport issue statement on completion of repair works of submarine cables". www.saba.ye. 23 July 2024. Retrieved 25 July 2024.