The SeaMeWe-3 cable has been retired after more than 25 years in service, reports Submarine Cable Networks.

First launched in 1999, the SeaMeWe-3 cable connects 39 points in 33 countries and 4 continents.

It was formerly the longest subsea cable in the world, spanning 39,000km, prior to the launch of the 2Africa cable.

SeaMeWe-3 was based on the earlier and shorter SeaMeWe-2 cable. Its consortium compressed more than 92 global investors from the telecom industry, led by Orange (formerly known as France Telecom) and China Telecom.

Due to its length, size, and age, cable disruptions on the SeaMeWe-3 cable were fairly common.

As well as a break in the South China Sea in August 2017 and a break near Singapore in December 2017, it suffered a cut in December 2016, a troublesome break in September 2015, which took months to fix, as well as previous outages in 2014 and others before.

DCD has contacted the relevant parties for further details on the cable’s retirement.