Telecom Egypt inks deal to extend submarine cable

AFRICAN BUSINESS AND ECONOMYOctober 5, 2023 at 2:24 PM UTC

Telecom Egypt, Egypt’s first integrated telecom operator and one of the largest subsea cable operators in the region, and the Medusa Submarine Cable System, a neutral and independent Mediterranean submarine infrastructure operator, have signed an agreement to extend Medusa to the Red Sea.

The 8,760 km long submarine cable, which will land in the Egyptian city of Port Said by the end of 2025, will be connected to the Red Sea landing stations of Suez, Zafarana, and Ras Ghareb through Telecom Egypt’s extensive terrestrial crossing network.

The companies’ CEOs signed the agreement during the Submarine Networks World event currently taking place in Singapore. The new connection will enable direct access of all the Medusa Mediterranean landings in Europe and North Africa to the Red Sea. Arriving at these geographically diverse Egyptian landing points will present new connection points for the Medusa submarine cable.

Key Takeaways

Africa’s telecommunications industry has witnessed rapid growth over the past two decades, playing a key role in shaping the continent’s economy as we know it today. Much of this growth is driven by some deregulation of the sector across the continent, a large young population increasingly adopting mobile voice and data services, and most importantly, massive investments in network infrastructure by dominant domestic and multinational giant operators. Telecom Egypt continually makes significant investments in its global infrastructure to provide the shortest and most reliable routes for its partners worldwide. With a well-established history in the subsea cable industry, it provides subsea cable deployment for more than 160 major players.