Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) announced today that it has completed work on the India-Middle East-Western Europe (IMEWE) Cable Network to upgrade the submarine cable network with 40 gigabits per second (Gbps) dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology. The upgrade involved installation of submarine line terminal equipment in eight countries.

The IMEWE Cable System, which was commissioned in 2010 as a 10 Gbps DWDM system, is an ultra high capacity fiber optic submarine cable system which links India to Europe via the Middle East. This cable network system with a total length of approximately 12,091 kilometers is complemented with 10 terminal stations owned by a consortium of nine leading telecom carriers in eight countries: India, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Italy and France. The cable system comprises three optical fiber cable pairs with two fiber pairs on an express path, as well as a terrestrial link connecting the cities of Alexandria and Suez in Egypt.

Network demand in these areas is expected to grow rapidly in line with economic development in India and the Middle East. To meet this demand, the IMEWE Consortium had decided to upgrade the cable system by deploying 40 Gbps/wave technology and Mitsubishi Electric was awarded the contract for this upgrade. Mitsubishi Electric has incorporated cutting-edge forward error correction and high-speed coherent^[1] technologies to terminal equipment, boosting transmission capacity. The technology will result in enhancing the network capacity to a maximum of 3.2 terabits per second or more per fiber by adding more 40 Gbps submarine line terminal equipment.

"Mitsubishi Electric has carried out assigned upgrade work of the IMEWE system in an extremely professional way. IMEWE parties are very happy and satisfied with the completion of upgrade work executed by Mitsubishi Electric in about 7 months which is a record for consortium cables. This timely completion of upgrade shall go a long way in meeting the ever growing bandwidth demand of countries landing the IMEWE system," said Mr KP Tiwari, Chairperson, Management Committee, IMEWE.

"We are very pleased to have completed the IMEWE Cable Network capacity upgrade, thereby delivering added quality and reliability in response to our customers' high evaluation of our technical strengths," said Masahiro Tsukamoto, General Manager of Mitsubishi Electric's Telecommunication Global Business Department. "Our technical strengths have become highly acclaimed worldwide, as evidenced by additional orders we have received for work on transoceanic cable networks, including the transatlantic TAT-14 and the transpacific Asia America Gateway (AAG). Now, we would like to thank the nine IMEWE parties for their support in achieving the IMEWE upgrade, and we look forward to continuing to provide our customers enhanced network speed and capacity."

Mitsubishi Electric has been a leader in submarine cable systems ever since supplying the world's first 5 Gbps optically amplified repeaters for a transpacific cable in 1994. In 1999, the company supplied the world's first 10 Gbps transmission technology for a transoceanic network, an order comprising 10 Gbps optically amplified repeaters and submarine line terminal equipment. Since 2004, the company has performed upgrades for numerous undersea cable systems.

^[1] Development of this technology is in part supported by the R&D on High Speed Optical Transport System Technologies project of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) of Japan.

About the IMEWE Cable System

The nine IMEWE parties which have contracted for the upgrade and are co-owners of IMEWE system are Bharti Airtel Ltd., Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, France Telecom, OGERO Telecom, Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited, Saudi Telecom Company, TATA Communications Limited, Telecom Egypt, and Telecom Italia SPARKLE S.p.A.

About Mitsubishi Electric

With over 90 years of experience in providing reliable, high-quality products, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) is a recognized world leader in the manufacture, marketing and sales of electrical and electronic equipment used in information processing and communications, space development and satellite communications, consumer electronics, industrial technology, energy, transportation and building equipment. Embracing the spirit of its corporate statement, Changes for the Better, and its environmental statement, Eco Changes, Mitsubishi Electric endeavors to be a global, leading green company, enriching society with technology. The company recorded consolidated group sales of 3,639.4 billion yen (US$ 44.4 billion*) in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012. For more information visit http://www.MitsubishiElectric.com
*At an exchange rate of 82 yen to the US dollar, the rate given by the Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market on March 31, 2012