Etisalat cableship Niwa leaves Abu Dhabi to begin SMW4 project to connect East and West

Alcatel Submarine Networks's SMW4 project is the fourth in a series of ambitious submarine cables linking the East and West. The innovative voice and data carrier aims to bridge the digital divide between the developed and developing countries and, effectively, connect the world.

The Niwa has set sail for Calais, France, where, under the contract awarded to e-marine by Alcatel, it will take on a cargo of submarine cable before proceeding to lay the cable. Omar Jassim Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of e-marine, said: "Our plans and preparations for the CS Niwa and this project have come to fruition. We are sure that e-marine will excel in the assigned sector.

"It is a huge achievement to be selected to become an integral part of such a key initiative. It is particularly pleasing that we were chosen for our ability."

Of the total 20,000 km length of the SMW4 cable, e-marine will lay 5,500 km of submarine cable in Segment-2, connecting Mumbai, Karachi, Fujairah, Jeddah to Suez and will also be involved in Segment-1 of the project, involving shore-end burial and other ancillary works in Mumbai. CS Niwa has the capacity to load 6000 tons of cables.

This new cable system, which will be operative in the third quarter of 2005, will facilitate 20 million voice calls and 60,000 broadcast television channels at the same time.

Etisalat specialist subsidiary e-marine is involved in several major international submarine cable systems. The fully equipped cable-ships with highly experienced personnel guarantee a full-fledged technical resource. Apart from their three cable-ships, e-marine also provides storage services for submarine cables and accessories in its depot, with testing and jointing facilities.