AAE-1

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. The AAE-1 cable has capacity of at least 40 terabits per second (Tbit/s) to supply the broadband market across Asia, Africa and Europe. In July 2017, it was launched for commercial services and is the longest submarine cable system in over a decade.

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.

Consortium members
China 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.

Landing Points & Operators
AAE-1 does not land directly in Singapore, instead it connects through a terrestrial extension between Malaysia and Singapore.

Incidents
On 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.

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. As of 13 May 2024, repairs to AAE-1 are still pending due to the refusal of permits from the Yemeni Government.

In July 2024, repairs were successfully carried out on the AAE-1 cable.