The deployment of submarine cables enhances high-speed connectivity. This infrastructure is pivotal for the development of smart cities, digital governance, and expanding tech ecosystems across the continent, driving economic growth and innovation.

Telecom Egypt has announced the addition of a new fibre optic submarine system to its inventory of high-speed telecoms infrastructures. This is the Africa-1 cable, which has been connected to the Ras Ghareb station on Egypt's Red Sea coast. This landing, announced on 6 November in partnership with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), is the first of two planned for Egypt. The second landing is set for the Mediterranean coast, marking a strategic milestone for Telecom Egypt as it pursues its ambitions to become a major player in global telecommunications.

Mohamed Nasr, Managing Director of Telecom Egypt, underlined the transformative impact of the project: “Partnering with the Africa-1 consortium to build this transformative submarine system is an important milestone (...) Africa-1 strengthens Egypt's position as a regional connectivity hub and helps bridge the digital divide in underserved regions.”

The Africa-1 submarine system is funded by a consortium of eight major telecommunications operators: Telecom Egypt, Algerie Telecom, e&, G42, Mobily, Pakistan Telecommunications Company Ltd, TeleYemen, and ZOI. Together, they aim to improve global connectivity, particularly for bandwidth-intensive applications such as artificial intelligence and data-intensive digital services, by meeting the ever-increasing demand for high-speed communications between continents.

For Telecom Egypt, this new investment is in line with its stated ambition in 2021 to evolve from a telecom service provider to a digital service provider and regional digital hub. It comes just days after the incumbent operator signed an agreement with Mobily on 4 November to deploy a new fibre optic submarine cable linking Egypt to Saudi Arabia.

Designed to connect East Africa, the Middle East, South Central Asia and Europe, the Africa-1 system is a high-capacity, low-latency network of eight fibre pairs, providing robust connectivity and expanding broadband capacity in these regions. The cable route stretches from Pakistan to France, with landings in a number of countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Djibouti, Yemen, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Algeria. The Ras Ghareb landing follows initial successful landings in Karachi, Pakistan, and Mombasa, Kenya.

Hikmatu Bilali