Undersea cable underlines Egypt’s position as international hub
Telecom Egypt, and Grid Telecom have signed a collaborative agreement to to build a subsea system connecting Egypt and Greece.
Telecom Egypt is one of the region’s largest subsea cables operators while Grid Telecom is
a wholly owned subsidiary of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) in Greece.
In a joint statement issued by the two, the planned subsea system aligns with Telecom Egypt’s strategy of strengthening its infrastructure, expanding its international network, and increasing its entry points to Europe by providing an eastern gateway via Greece through the new subsea system.
Long reach
The system will connect Port Said in Egypt to the Greek island of Crete making it the shortest, lowest latency, Mediterranean path between Egypt and Europe.
It will extend northwards to the Balkans and adjacent destinations in Central and Western Europe, and southwards to the Arabian Peninsula and other regions in Africa and Asia.
Apparently this also reinforces Egypt’s strategic position as an international telecommunications hub linking the East and West.
Earlier this year, Telecom Egypt and Grid Telecom signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding, which set the ground for the exploration of different connectivity options between Greece and Egypt through existing and new fibre links.
That agreement was followed by the signing of a Heads of Agreement to build this new subsea system extending the mutual international reach to neighboring countries.
In June Telecom Egypt signed a contract with subsea connection specialist Aqua Communications to build the EMIC-1 subsea system to link four continents.
International hub
The Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Egypt, Dr Amr Talaat, stated that “This significant agreement… provides a strategic advantage, particularly given that more than 90% of the data flow between East and West passes via Egyptian territorial waters and lands.”
He added that the signing of this agreement is the culmination of 10 months’ work since negotiations started during his February visit to Greece.
The Managing Director and CEO of Telecom Egypt, Adel Hamed, commented, “Our collaboration with Grid Telecom will add explicit value to our robust reach worldwide to more than 140 destinations in over 60 countries.
“Our investments in new systems and solutions reiterate our leading position thanks to the multiple layers of our infrastructure diversity, which include…new subsea landing stations and crossing routes that will cater for the rising global demand for international capacities.”