Jio launches 100 Gbps submarine cable connecting Asia, Africa and Europe

Not content with turning the Indian telecoms market upside down Reliance Jio has been a primary player in a new 100 Gbps submarine cable system.

AAE-1 (Asia-Africa-Europe) does what it says on the tin – running from Hong Kong to Marseille via south east Asia, India, the Middle East and Africa. Of course Jio didn’t do the whole thing by itself but it is the network operations and management provider and seems to be the telco most keen to derive publicity from it.

“The new terabit capacity and 100Gbps direct connectivity to global content hubs and interconnection points ensure that Jio will continue to offer its customers the most exceptional high speed internet and digital service experience,” said Mathew Oommen, President of Jio. “We are excited to participate in the launch and deliver the cable landing in Mumbai at the time when India’s data traffic continues its accelerated data consumption and growth.”

This is apparently the largest submarine cable system to be constructed in 15 years. As well as promising 100 Gbps bandwidth it also has a minimum design capacity of 40 Tbps. The submarine bit actually terminates at Singapore, with the rest of East Asia served by terrestrial cabling, which in turn seems to help with things like latency.

Here’s a list of all the other companies involved in AAE-1: China Unicom, Djibouti Telecom, Etisalat, Global Transit, Hyalroute, Metfone, Mobily, Omantel, Ooredoo, Oteglobe, PCCW, Ptcl, Retelit, Tele Yemen, Telecom Egypt, Telecom of Thailand, Viettel, VNPT.