There is yet another fiber network, called a mouthful SEA-ME-WE-4, is being constructed to serve the booming Asian demand for bandwidth. (Which does not mean that anyone can make money, selling bandwidth, but lets save it for another day.

A consortium of 16 telecom operators have will spend about $500 million (Alcatel SA and Fujitsu Ltd. get that money) and build and lay a 20,000 km long submarine cable linking southeast Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe, according to the Dow-Jones Newswire.

bq. “SEA-ME-WE-4 will carry telephone, Internet and various broadband data streams through 14 countries – Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh , India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and France.” It is supposed to begin carrying data in the third quarter of 2005. [link via InternetPolicy.net]