The Asia-Europe Optical Cable, known as AAE-1, is a 25,000 km submarine fibre-optic system connecting Southeast Asia to Europe, providing high-capacity international internet connectivity.

Overview

The Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1) cable is a major submarine communications system that links Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, and France . Launched for commercial service in June 2017, it was one of the longest submarine cables in the world at the time . The cable is designed to support the growing broadband and data traffic between Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Technical Specifications

• Length: 25,000 km
• Fibre Pairs: 5
• Design Capacity: Initially 40 Tbit/s, upgraded to over 100 Tbit/s in 2022 using Infinera ICE6 800G technology
• Landing Stations: Includes major hubs such as Telecom House in Hong Kong, Equinix in Singapore, and Interxion in France
• Consortium: Over 17 carriers, including China Unicom, Reliance Jio, Telecom Egypt, Viettel, and others

Route and Geography

AAE-1 spans the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and Mediterranean, with Egyptian landings at Zafarana (Red Sea) and Abu Talat (Mediterranean), bypassing the Suez Canal via terrestrial crossings . The cable connects multiple countries through 20 landing stations, providing redundancy and high availability for international data traffic .

Significance

Submarine cables like AAE-1 carry the vast majority of intercontinental internet traffic, supporting cloud services, streaming, and global communications . AAE-1 enhances connectivity between Asia and Europe, reduces latency, and provides a high-capacity backbone for enterprises, carriers, and cloud providers. Its upgrades ensure it remains competitive in handling modern data demands, including AI workloads and high-speed internet services .

Additional Notes

AAE-1 is part of a broader network of Asia-Europe submarine and terrestrial links, complementing other systems like TRANSKZ, which provides a terrestrial DWDM route between Hong Kong and Frankfurt with low latency and high reliability . Together, these networks form the backbone of global internet infrastructure, ensuring resilient, high-speed connectivity across continents.