Alcatel-Lucent has signed a turnkey contract with a consortium of nine telecom players to deploy the 13,000 km submarine cable network, India-Middle East-Western Europe (I-ME-WE), linking Mumbai with Marseilles in France.

Alcatel-Lucent has signed a turnkey contract with a consortium of nine telecom players to deploy the 13,000 km submarine cable network, India-Middle East-Western Europe (I-ME-WE), linking Mumbai with Marseilles in France. The new submarine cable will provide backhaul communications capabilities and an increased capacity for high bandwidth broadband services along the IndiaWestern Europe route. A terrestrial link will also be deployed in Egypt to connect the cities of Alexandria and Suez as part of the I-ME-WE cable. Alcatel-Lucent will build the turnkey system with the support of its subcontractor, NEC Corporation, which will provide and install the plant from Mumbai to Jeddah. Apart from seven global players, the consortium includes Bharti Airtel and Tata Communications.