State-run Telecom Egypt (TE) and Barcelona-based infrastructure and telecom operator AFR-IX Telecom have signed on Wednesday a landing party agreement for the landing of the largest Mediterranean submarine cable system Medusa, in Egypt
Medusa is an 8,760km long submarine cable system with 24 fibre pairs and a capacity of 20 Tbps per fibre pair set to connect the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The cable will have 16 landing points in several Mediterranean countries, including Portugal, Morocco, Spain, Algeria, France, Tunisia, Italy, Greece, and Egypt. It is a new generation submarine cable and follows the open cable standard. The project aims to respond to the current challenges of submarine connections, which are establishing new routes to diversify and decongest data traffic, gaining capacity with greater number of fibers per cable, and promoting open access to all European landing stations.
Medusa Cable map
The agreement was signed during the Mobile World Congress 2022 taking place in Barcelona by Adel Hamed, managing director and chief executive of Telecom Egypt and Norman Albi, chief executive of AFR-IX Telecom and Medusa.
TE, as the partner-of-choice for major global submarine cable owners, is providing state-of-art infrastructure across Egypt with onward connectivity to more than 140 landing points in over 60 countries. The Egyptian company has invested extensively in its submarine cable infrastructure, which is the shortest and most reliable crossing path between Africa, Asia, and Europe. It is also working on multiple layers of its infrastructure diversity, such as establishing new submarine landing stations and crossing routes as well as investing in new systems and solutions that cater for the rising global demand for international bandwidth, the company added in a statement.
“We are pleased to introduce additional connectivity to Egypt through the Medusa submarine cable system, which will increase diversity in the Mediterranean basin.” TE’s Adel Hamed said.
Meanwhile, AFR-IX’s Norman Albi said: “The agreement with Telecom Egypt is key to the project as Egypt is an essential transit route for submarine cables due to its privileged position between Europe, Asia, and Africa.
“It is a very valuable connection to link East to West and North to South. With Medusa, we will also contribute to diversifying traditional routes such as those that land in Alexandria or Suez.”
