Seventeen telecommunications companies have signed a construction and maintenance agreement for the planned Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1) cable system.

The cable will interconnect Hong Kong, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe and is expected to be ready for service in 2016.

It will facilitate and provide support for the unprecedented growth of Asia-Africa trade. Providing robust, reliable, low latency connectivity which underpins one of the highest growth and most active global trade routes, AAE-1 will also bring much needed protection and diversity to the existing heavily congested subsea cable systems connecting the various countries along the route, it said.

Participating operators include PCCW Global, China Unicom, Telecom Egypt, Etisalat, Omantel, and Ooredoo. PCCW Global unveiled plans to land the cable at the Cape D’Aguilar Cable Station in Hong Kong, and then extend connectivity to its city data centre.

It will be the first submarine cable linking the Far East to Europe at the possible lowest rate of delay and high transfer capacities ranging up to more than 40 terabits which will contribute significantly to the growth of the business volume in the countries passing through.

The submarine cable will connect Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates , Qatar, Yemen , Djibouti, Egypt , Greece, Italy and France.