The cable system has 40 landing points in 34 countries and is over 37,000 km in length. Some 93 international telecommunications companies are investors in this cable system. Telstra is one of the 15 Initial Parties and is, therefore, one of the biggest investors in the cable.

Multi-million dollar contracts were executed in early 1997 with five international submarine cable system suppliers, Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) of France, KDD-SCS and Fujitsu of Japan, Tyco Submarine Systems International (TSSI - formerly ATT-SSI) of America, and Maristel (Pirelli) of Italy, to construct the SEA-ME-WE 3 system. At the same time, the 34 landing parties commenced the preparation and/or construction of the cable landing, land duct route and cable station equipment building infrastructure needed in their respective countries to accommodate the submarine cable and terminal equipment at the 40 landing points.

Telstra, as the major Australian investor (OPTUS and AAPT are also investors) and Australian landing party for SEA-ME-WE 3, was responsible for establishing the new land based infrastructure which was required at Perth, Western Australia. NDC Submarine Cables and NDC Western Region completed this infrastructure which includes directionally drilled underground conduits out to sea from behind Floreat Beach, a new secure land cable duct route back to the Perth Central Business District, and refurbishment of the third floor at the Telstra Pier Street Transmission Centre, where the cable terminal equipment was installed. Additional capacity was established on the existing coastal and inland terrestrial fibre optic cable links from Perth to Sydney to enable SEA-ME-WE 3 connectivity to Telstra’s two east coast international gateway telephone exchanges at Paddington and Oxford Falls.

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