The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has witnessed the signing of a landing party agreement between Telecom Egypt and AFR-IX Telecom, a Barcelona-based infrastructure and telecom operator. The agreement is aimed at creating a landing point in Egypt for Medusa, a major submarine cable system in the Mediterranean.
The agreement was signed by the Managing Director and CEO of Telecom Egypt Adel Hamed, and the CEO of AFR-IX Telecom and Medusa Norman Albi, on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress (MWC Barcelona).
Medusa is an 8,760 km long subsea cable system with 24 fiber pairs and a capacity of 20 Tbps per fiber pair. It will link the Mediterranean countries through 16 landing points, connecting Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece with North African countries, including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt.
Medusa is an Open Access submarine cable system that responds to the current challenges of submarine connections by establishing new routes to diversify and decongest data traffic; providing a future-proof infrastructure that will cope with the annual bandwidth growth thanks to high count of fiber pairs; and promoting open access to all landing stations.
In his remarks, Talaat underlines that Egypt’s many competitive advantages cement the country as the world's most important digital data path, and a destination and host to the largest data centers. Egypt has 13 submarine cables passing through its soil, with over five more being installed, he added.
Egypt provides fiber optic cable routes to facilitate and secure international data transfer through its soil. The country has allocated a 4,000+ km2 long fiber optic network carrying hundreds of terabytes of bandwidth between East and West.
For his part, Hamed said "We are pleased to introduce additional connectivity to Egypt through the Medusa submarine cable system, which will increase diversity in the Mediterranean basin. We believe this agreement will be the beginning of more upcoming collaborations with AFR-IX telecom."
"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,” commented AFR-IX CEO Albi. “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,” he added.
About AFR-IX telecom
AFR-IX telecom is a private Barcelona-based and European capital company. AFR-IX telecom infrastructure investments include the new Barcelona Cable Landing Station – a neutral digital port – which starts operations in 2022 Q3 and aims to provide open access cable landing services to subsea cable operators for a neutral, safe, and secure landing in Barcelona.
Additionally, AFR-IX telecom is a licensed telecommunication operator in Portugal, Spain, USA and in multiple African countries as South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, DRC, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Niger, and Cameroon. It has the most reliable and largest Metro Ethernet Pan African Network and offers global coverage services to Africa.
Telecom Egypt
Telecom Egypt is the first integrated telecom operator in Egypt providing all telecom services to its customers including fixed and mobile voice and data services. Telecom Egypt has a long history serving Egyptian customers for over 160 years maintaining a leadership position in the Egyptian telecom market by offering its enterprise and consumer customers the most advanced technology, reliable infrastructure solutions and the widest network of submarine cables.
Telecom Egypt, as the partner-of-choice for major global submarine cable owners, is providing the international community with state-of-art infrastructure across Egypt and the globe to over 140 landing points in more than 60 countries. The company has invested extensively in its submarine cable infrastructure, which is the shortest and most reliable crossing path between Africa, Asia, and Europe. Additionally, Telecom Egypt is 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.
