Telecom Egypt will be the first to provide St Helena with a fibre optic connection to the rest of the world, which is a crucial step towards the Island’s economic growth. The cable, along with the associated high-speed internet, is planned to be delivered to the Island by early 2022.
The branch that connects Telecom Egypt’s system to St Helena will be 1,140km long. The cable itself will run from the West Coast of Africa and provide St Helena with access to both Lisbon, Portugal and Melkbosstrand, South Africa with scalable connectivity ranging from a few hundred gigabits up to multiple terabits, as demand varies. It, therefore, provides the most cost effective solution to the growth in the Island’s bandwidth needs.
In light of its vast experience in the subsea connectivity business, Telecom Egypt, in conjunction with SHG, will provide a Dynamic Circuit Network functionality, which will ensure that SHG’s communication partners have access to fixed bandwidth. Telecom Egypt will also support SHG in the design, installation, and configuration of the submarine and network equipment.
SHG’s Fibre Optic Project Manager, Jeremy Roberts, said:
“From an operational perspective, this is a key milestone for the Fibre Optic Project, as we now have an association with an international partner of high repute who will ensure that all the necessary technical prerequisites are installed in readiness for the arrival of the Equiano System.”
Telecom Egypt’s VP for International & Wholesale, Seif Mounib, commented:
“We are delighted to have signed this agreement with St Helena Government as this cooperation is part of the initiation of Telecom Egypt’s endeavor in Western Africa and is a step forward in Telecom Egypt’s plan to expand its services beyond the MENA region and fortify its global presence by providing subsea solutions to global partners. This solution will enable entities within St Helena to access large capacities that will certainly improve the quality of service and enhance customer experience.“
Telecom Egypt offers the global telecom community access to abundant international capacities with the lowest latency over the shortest and most efficient protected path from Africa and Asia to Europe, capitalizing on the company’s continuous and extensive network revamps and Egypt’s distinct geographic location at the heart of the world. Its advanced and futuristic infrastructure capabilities led Telecom Egypt to become the partner-of-choice for many international telecom players over the years.
Additionally, Telecom Egypt is working on multiple layers of its infrastructure diversity by establishing new subsea landing stations and crossing routes and investing in new subsea systems and solutions that will cater to the new global wave of international capacities. To maintain the high level of service availability, Telecom Egypt has developed its mesh network solutions spanning the Mediterranean Sea, crossing Egypt, and extending to Singapore.
About Telecom Egypt
Telecom Egypt is the first total 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. Aside from its mobile operation "WE", the company owns a 45% stake in Vodafone Egypt. Telecom Egypt’s shares and GDRs (Ticker: ETEL.CA; TEEG.LN) are traded on The Egyptian Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. Please refer to Telecom Egypt’s full financial disclosure on ir.te.eg
For more information, contact:
The investor relations team
Email: investor.relations@te.eg
