Telecom Egypt and ASN land Red Sea segment of Africa-1 cable

Telecom Egypt and Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) announced on Wednesday they have successfully landed the Africa-1 subsea cable system at the first of two planned landing points in Egypt.

The landing was made at the Ras Ghareb cable landing station on Egypt’s coast facing the Red Sea. A second landing station is planned for Port Said on the Mediterranean coast to link Africa-1 to Marseille, France and Bejaia, Algeria. The system will use new terrestrial routes to link the two landing stations.

The Africa-1 club cable – which is being built and deployed by ASN – is designed to run from Marseille and Bejaia to Karachi, Pakistan, with planned initial landing points in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Djibouti, Yemen, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

The cable may also later extend its reach southward from Kenya to Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa, as well as Tunisia and Italy on the Mediterranean side.

The Ras Ghareb landing is the third to be completed, following earlier landings in Karachi and Mombasa.

Africa-1 is scheduled to be ready for service sometime next year, with eight fiber pairs offering not only additional capacity but more diversity and resiliency, particualty along the Red Sea route where cable cuts have been a recurring problem throughout 2024.

“By making additional subsea routes available in the growing markets of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, this system will boost broadband capabilities and expand our subsea network to meet the rising demand for reliable, high-speed communications, especially for bandwidth-intensive applications such as artificial intelligence,” said Telecom Egypt MD and CEO Mohamed Nasr in a statement.

In addition to Telecom Egypt, Africa-1 is co-owned by Algerie Telecom, e&, G42, Mobily, Pakistan Telecommunications Company Ltd (PTCL), TeleYemen and ZOI.