- Who
- SEA-ME-WE 3
- Where
- Not Applicable ()
- When
Light forms the basis for all communications in the modern world, with many thousands of kilometers of fibre-optic cables to be found at the bottom of the world's oceans. The longest of all these light pipes is the Sea-Me-We-3 (South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe). At a length of 39,000 km (24,000 miles), the cable is operated by India's Tata Communications and was fully commissioned in late 2000. It uses wavelength division multiplexing (48 colours of light provide 48 channels of data at 10Gbit/s) with synchronous digital hierarchy (a method of improving signal quality) to provide a high-speed connection between Germany to Australia and Japan. A total of 93 investors funded the enormous cost of the cable that keeps around 10 million people in contact with each other every day.
