Telecom Egypt's CEO highlights how Egypt continues to go from strength to strength as a communications hub.
As we start 2024, how strong is Egypt's current position as a hub for submarine cables?
Given that 70% of Earth’s surface is water, builders of subsea cable systems have endless options for the routing of subsea networks. While these transcontinental networks run far and wide around the world, Egypt has always been positioned as an ideal transit point for those designing routes, as a country located at the crossroads of three continents – Africa, Asia and Europe.
To connect the Far East, the Middle East and East Africa to main destinations in Europe, international telecommunications traffic is carried over the trans-Egypt terrestrial infrastructure linking the Red Sea with the Mediterranean.
Partnering with over 160 major global subsea cable players, Telecom Egypt hosts 14 in-service subsea cables landing in the country, 12 of which cross the nation. The plan is to have at least five more subsea cables landing in Egypt in the coming years. Today, Telecom Egypt’s well-established infrastructure carries more than 200Tbps of international data traffic from East to West.
As such, we have managed to position ourselves as a global digital hub for international players to land and expand their networks to new markets. In addition, Egypt has succeeded in becoming a go-to destination for subsea cable owners seeking to gain immediate access to a rich forum and networking ecosystem that enables them to scale up their networks efficiently and seamlessly. Given all that and the development of new solutions, Egypt’s role in the international telecoms landscape is ever more paramount.
What are the main steps that Telecom Egypt has taken to address regional challenges?
When faced with challenges, we recognise that there are also opportunities that can help us to tackle them. We are building long-term strategic partnerships with large-scale players to design technical solutions to make the most of such opportunities. Also, given that we offer unmatched infrastructure propositions, we have a competitive edge over others.
Furthermore, we are encouraging policymakers in the region to ease regulatory requirements, and support the deployment and construction of subsea cables. We are therefore not only offering technical solutions, but also working on ways to simplify cable rollouts.
What are the main current and future needs in the industry, and how is Telecom Egypt meeting them?
In today’s digital world, having uninterrupted, continuous service is a crucial need. To fulfil this, we must have diversity, digital hubs with geopolitical stability and an open business ecosystem.
Over the years, we have worked extensively on expanding our international infrastructure within Egypt and beyond. While doing this, we have added several layers of diversity to our network to better serve our partners in the subsea cable industry.
Moreover, we are creating new routes to key European destinations via strategic partnerships. This will introduce new entry points, namely to Greece and Albania, through which fresh routes will be extended to provide access to major European hubs.
Going forward, how is Telecom Egypt seeking to contribute further to subsea infrastructure that reaches the country?
Both cable landing stations and terrestrial crossing routes need to be in place for the transition of international networks in the region from wet segments to dry segments and on to wet segments again. This is achieved by connecting the Mediterranean and Red Sea through Egypt, as already mentioned.
Capitalising on the country’s extensive coastlines, measuring 1,941km on the Red Sea and 995km on the Mediterranean, Telecom Egypt has developed 10 in-service cable landing stations – five on each sea – and 10 crossing routes between the stations on each side. That contrasts significantly with the situation before 2009, when Telecom Egypt had only one landing station on each coast and four crossing routes connecting between them.
And we do not intend on stopping there, with plans to establish six more landing points and six more crossing routes over the next couple of years.
As you can see, the first layer of diversity we have been working on is diversity in numbers when it comes to our international infrastructure in Egypt. The other layer of diversity we offer to the international community is associated with the geographical range of locations, both in landing points and crossing trajectories – which are widespread and separated by considerable distances.
What steps has the company recently taken to upgrade Egypt’s international infrastructure and make it more reliable?
Leveraging our infrastructure capabilities, we have been developing solutions and add-ons to provide an ideal environment for our wide array of telecoms carrier and hyperscaler partners. Telecom Egypt is always keen on collaborating with renowned market players to obtain and use the latest technologies and means to increase network capacities and provide customers with agile networking services.
To enhance protection, crossing routes are selected based on a combination of factors and conditions, including geodiversity. Some terrestrial crossings are located alongside highways, while others coexist with critical infrastructure to benefit from secure paths and ensure that the fibre cables run uninterrupted end-to-end. Examples include routes along the robust Sumed oil transport pipelines and our ICE terrestrial fibre-optic crossing between Suez and Port Said, which runs through the highly secured Suez Canal campus on the west bank of its watercourse.
On another front, Telecom Egypt has extended its international mesh network in the country to include more crossing routes. The strategy forms part of the company’s plan to expand its mesh network to more subsea landing stations and more crossing routes.
With such infrastructure, the network can rapidly accommodate unpredictable traffic demands and optimise capacity on the trans-Egypt routes across any path on layer 1, 2 and 3 of its mesh connectivity, with a network availability of up to 99.999%. Offering an elevated level of robustness, the network can reroute traffic as needed in less than 50 milliseconds.
What else has the company recently done to boost submarine cable infrastructure in Egypt?
Last September, we launched the new WeConnect ecosystem. This ecosystem provides agile access to Egypt’s extensive subsea cable infrastructure by enabling users to mix and match connectivity between their cable systems in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea via an open and neutral model.
With globally competitive pricing schemes, WeConnect’s digital platform gives users access to click-to-order cross-connectivity between the 14 subsea cable systems landing in Egypt’s 10 cable stations, linked via the 10 terrestrial routes spanning the country. Users can easily manage their commercial agreements through the online platform to enjoy accelerated access to the growing number of subsea cable systems with greater agility, adaptability, diversity and resiliency.
As well as helping to accelerate the deployment of our customers’ digital infrastructure, WeConnect further enhances the options for global partners to cross-connect their capacity over various subsea systems. As such, the service adds value for Telecom Egypt’s partners by enabling them to make the best use of their assets, ultimately filtering through to the end-user experience.
Via WeConnect’s cross-connection ecosystem, Telecom Egypt’s partners can easily log into the platform and route their traffic over different systems, enabling them to scale up wherever they see an opportunity while having full control over their subsea cable connectivity. The service provides efficient scalability, with the potential to promote the reach of all applications and services to billions of potential end users.
Moving forward, the company will continue to expand its international digital infrastructure and develop solutions to better connect the two seas.
