France Telecom-Orange Lights IMEWE

PARIS -- The new IMEWE submarine cable (India Middle East Western Europe) was officially turned on or “lit” on 10 December 2010. The cable serves eight countries: India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Italy and France.

The France Telecom-Orange group brought together several major partners in an international consortium to bring the project to fruition, including Bharti, Etisalat, Ogero, Pakistan Telecom, Saudi Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telecom Italia Sparkle and Tata Communications.

more than 13,000 km of optical fibre cable between Asia, the Middle East and Europe

With this cable, France Telecom-Orange supports the strong growth of the Indian subcontinent by providing new transmission capacities to its customers, and will be in a position to cover demand for years to come. It will also provide Middle Eastern countries with a new point of access to international broadband networks.

Orange (NYSE: FTE)