On 14 February 1984, a consortium of 22 telecommunications administrations from 21 countries signed the agreement for the construction, operation and maintenance of the South-East Asia-Middle-East Western Europe Submarine Cable Systemт.

The Submarine Cable System has eight segments linking Singapore to France via Indonesia. Sri Lanka, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Italy. At a length of about 13,000 km and costing over S$800 million, it is one of the longest submarine cables in the world

The Submarine Cable System will be used to carry all types of telecommunications services including telephone, telex, telegram, data and facsimile. The submarine cables which are shielded from external interference, ofter very high quality telecommunications services under all weather conditions.

Until 1985, except for trans-border telecommunications utilising terrestial land co-axial cable and micro-wave links, international telecommunications between East Asia, the Middle East and Europe have depended almost entirely on satellite communications. The introduction of this submarine cable will, for the first time, provide an alternative telecommunications link for the countries in the Indian Ocean region.

At Singapore, it will be interconnected with existing submarine cables such as the ASEAN submarine cables which was completed in 1984 and future submarine cable systems planned in the region. Two other submarine cable systems which will be completed in 1986 are the Singapore- Hong Kong-Taiwan Submarine Cable System and the Singapore Indonesia-Australia Submarine Cable System.

Through these four submarine cable systems and a sophisticated network of satellite communications, Telecoms is increasingly playing its role in delivering the inlormation technology to the business community and the general public.