Sri Lanka. Photo: VCG

Huawei Marine Networks (HMN) said on Thursday that it had completed the marine survey for the Maldives-Sri Lanka Cable (MSC) cable project that directly connects Hulhumale in the eastern Maldives and Mount Lavinia in the west of Sri Lanka, and the cable project is expected to be put into commercial use by the end of 2020.

The new submarine cable system will facilitate a direct connection between the Maldives and Sri Lanka, increasing regional capacity and network diversity.

"This important phase of the system delivery captures bathymetric and seabed composition information that is used to refine route engineering and marine installation methods to ensure a robust system design," said the firm in a press release.

The MSC system is 840 kilometers long, and is equipped with HMN's high-output titanium housing repeaters deployed to a water depth of 3,700 meters to provide a reliable regional telecommunications network, according to the firm.

"In these challenging times, we were pleased to see solid project management and delivery capabilities. We believe that the MSC system will be delivered on schedule and it will provide our customers in both countries with a fast and reliable international connectivity experience," said M.S. Tanwar, chief technology and information officer of Ooredoo Maldives PLC.

Huawei Marine was established in 2008 as a joint venture with Britain's Global Marine. In 2019, Huawei sold its undersea telecom cable business in its first major asset sale since the US ratcheted up accusations of the Chinese tech giant being a vehicle for espionage, according to a Reuters report.

Hengtong Optic-Electric Co, an optical telecommunication network products company based in East China's Jiangsu province bought a 51 percent stake in the firm.

The number of Huawei Marine Networks' contracts reached over 100 by the end of 2019, including new build and upgrade projects. In 2019, it secured over 10 contracts, the firm said on its official website, noting that the projects are pioneering applications for the latest technologies, like 16 fiber-pair SDM repeaters.

Global Times