SEA-ME-WE 6

South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 6 (SEA-ME-WE 6) is an in-progress optical fibre submarine communications cable system that would carry telecommunications between Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Western Europe. Construction began in early 2022. It is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2025 The expected cable length is 19,200 km and it has a design capacity of 126 Tbit/s (12.6 Tbit/s per fiber pair), using SDM technology.

Bangladesh, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, the UAE, Djibouti, Egypt, Turkey, Italy, France, Myanmar and Yemen are members of the SEA-ME-WE-6 Consortium.

In May 2023, it was reported the U.S. government had objected to Chinese participation in the cable due to security concerns, and construction was moved from HMN Technologies (Huawei Marine Networks) to a U.S. consortium, SubCom. Due to rising geopolitical tensions between China and the US, two Chinese operators, namely China Telecom and China Mobile withdrew from the consortium. They are planning a rival cable with China Unicom.

Al Khaleej Branch
The Al Khaleej cable is a branch of the upcoming SEA-ME-WE 6 cable connecting the UAE to Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. Jointly operated by Batelco and Etisalat by e&, it will be 1,400 km long and will be ready for service in Q2 2026.