Batelco Selects SubCom to Build and Install Regional Subsea Cable

SubCom will manufacture and install a regional subsea cable, the Al Khaleej Cable, which will be 100 percent owned and operated by Batelco, part of the Beyon Group, and will significantly enhance the data exchange capabilities of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Al Khaleej will branch from the SEA-ME-WE 6 cable, a 21,700 km-long subsea telecommunications data cable system connecting Bahrain with 14 other countries, and will help to diversify routes and augment international connectivity for the region.

The SEA-ME-WE 6 cable system, offering one of the lowest latencies available between the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Western Europe, will have the capability of transferring more than 100 terabits per second. The new subsea cable will create a layer of network diversity and resilience for the heavily used routes connecting the Middle East towards Europe and Asia. Batelco joined the SEA-ME-WE 6 cable consortium in February 2023.

Hani Askar, Batelco Chief Global Business Officer said, “We are delighted to partner with SubCom, a global leader in the design, manufacture, and implementation of fiber optic cables, to build the Al Khaleej Cable. The 1,400 km long Al Khaleej Cable, which will connect Bahrain to regional countries including Qatar, UAE and Oman, will substantially boost Batelco’s capabilities and strengthen regional connectivity.”

“A robust connectivity infrastructure is central to the growth of a digital economy and our investment in the SEA-ME-WE 6 and Al Khaleej Cable systems, along with our existing international infrastructure, will further enhance the diversity, resilience and latency of our network systems,” he added.

“Our congratulations to Batelco on the launch of the Al Khaleej regional cable system,” said Benoit Duguet, Project Manager at SubCom. “Our organization is already at work manufacturing the cable and equipment necessary to complete one of the more extensive cable projects ever commissioned. We are grateful to the entire SEA-ME-WE 6 consortium for entrusting SubCom with this critical project, and to Batelco in particular, for giving us the opportunity to build a branch that will have such a positive impact on the region’s connectivity.”

All cable and equipment related to both SEA-ME-WE 6 and Al Khaleej will be manufactured by SubCom at its campus in Newington, NH, USA. SubCom is a leader in high fiber count cables, including the SL17-A1 cable with up to 12FP,

SL17 cable with up to 16FP, and SL17-SDM cable with up to 24FP for base configuration. SubCom also uses its proven expertise in system design to select the optical fiber technology, including fiber effective area and loss characteristics, providing a cost-optimized design solution.

Once completed, the cable and equipment for both the SEA-ME-WE 6 and Al Khaleej Cable systems will be loaded onto SubCom’s Reliance Class cable ships for deployment. The SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable connectivity to Bahrain and Al Khaleej Cable are expected to be completed by Q2 2026. Additional details on the cable installation process can be found online at: https://youtu.be/UhwXdEjzx-s