What connectivity demands do Egypt and the Middle East face as we enter 2025? And how is Telecom Egypt positioned to meet these needs?
As digital transformation continues to accelerate in Egypt and the Middle East, connectivity demands are growing rapidly. The adoption of AI and cloud applications and the integration of automated functions are driving the need for scalable, low-latency, resilient high-speed networks.
At Telecom Egypt, we are committed to meeting these challenges. We are leveraging our unique position as a connectivity hub and our technological expertise to address the region’s current demands while preparing for the future.
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To achieve this, we continue to focus on investing in and geographically diversifying our international infrastructure to ensure we meet the escalating requirements for capacity and reliability. At the same time, we are constantly innovating and diversifying our infrastructure portfolio, offering unique services tailored to the evolving needs of the wholesale industry.
As a major transcontinental hub, Telecom Egypt connects the Far East, the Middle East, Africa and Europe with a network that today carries over 225Tbps and is responsible for more than 90% of the traffic that traverses Egypt between these regions. This strategic position allows us to play a pivotal role in supporting the region’s connectivity needs.
Our continued investments and leadership in connectivity have been widely recognised, with Telecom Egypt named Best Global Connectivity Provider for Data at the 2024 Global Connectivity Awards.
How is Telecom Egypt investing in the international infrastructure domain to advance its position as a global connectivity accelerator?
As it stands, we have strong partnerships with over 170 major global subsea cable players across more than 21 in-service and planned subsea systems. We continue to scale and diversify our network, with significant investments in both subsea and terrestrial infrastructure. These efforts include expanding into new territories and investing in subsea systems in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and beyond, as well as developing diverse infrastructure across Egypt.
Egypt also contains a rich and varied networking ecosystem that constitutes an attractive destination for the subsea cable community. This in-service infrastructure connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranean over 10 diverse trans-Egypt terrestrial crossing routes and five landing stations located on each coast. In addition, we have extended into the east bank of the Suez Canal within Egypt’s Asian territory in the Sinai Peninsula to establish more crossing solutions for the subsea systems linking both seas.
Our Sinai infrastructure includes four diverse terrestrial crossing routes that connect the three new cable landing stations in Sinai – at Taba and Sharm El Sheikh on the Red Sea, and a third station on the Mediterranean – along with a fourth station, Port Said 2, located on the west side of the Suez Canal.
These routes seamlessly integrate with Egypt’s existing 10 landing stations and 10 in-service crossing routes, creating a robust and resilient mesh of terrestrial networks serving the subsea community. This infrastructure also provides access to the subsea systems landing in Egypt, with seven to eight subsea systems planned to land in Sinai. To further enhance this network, we plan to construct a subsea link connecting Sharm El Sheikh with Ras Ghareb.
Can you tell us about some of your most recent subsea cable deals?
Among our key initiatives to drive global connectivity in 2024, we signed several landmark agreements to reflect our regional and global ambitions. These included deals to build subsea cables linking Egypt to Jordan and Albania, the ICE IV cable connecting the Far East, Middle East and beyond, and an agreement to land the first subsea cable directly linking Egypt with Saudi Arabia.
We also unveiled a partnership with EXA Infrastructure to support our WeConnect connectivity ecosystem. Most recently, at the end of 2024, we entered into a strategic commercial partnership with China Mobile International.
Furthermore, with Telecom Egypt complementing the newly established landing stations in Taba and Sharm El Sheikh with the crossing routes developed to the Mediterranean Sea, the Coral Bridge and Mobily subsea systems will enable expansion to Europe through a variety of connectivity options. This follows the establishment of a joint venture in early 2024 with Hungary-based telecom and IT player 4iG to construct an express subsea cable connecting to Albania as a new entry point to Europe.
Can you tell us a bit more about some of Telecom Egypt’s other moves to land subsea cables?
In November, we landed the Africa-1 subsea cable in Egypt at the Ras Ghareb landing station on the Red Sea, marking another big step in connecting the long-distance intercontinental system stretching from Pakistan to France.
In a similar vein, the two landings of the 10,000km IEX subsea system in Egypt, which will directly connect India to Europe, were completed last June. Cables like Africa-1 and IEX will link up the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe, playing a key role in bridging the digital divide in underserved regions where connectivity is urgently needed.
These achievements bring our total subsea cable landings in Egypt to over 10 in the past four years. Notable landings include PEACE in 2021 at Zafarana 2 and Abu Talat 2; the Red Sea Festoon in 2022 in Ras Ghareb, Zafarana and Suez; and 2Africa in 2022 at Ras Ghareb and in 2023 at Port Said. Looking ahead, more subsea systems are set to land in Egypt this year.
In what other ways is Telecom Egypt helping to position its home market as a digital hub, and are there any measures of its success in doing so?
One of the factors positioning Egypt as a digital hub is the expansion of our data centre infrastructure. Building on the success of the first phase of our Regional Data Hub (RDH 1) – which reached full utilisation in just one year and earned multiple Tier III Uptime Institute and ISO certifications – we anticipate completing the construction of the second phase, RDH 2, by the end of this year.
Recently, RDH 2 was awarded a Tier III Design Certification to mark that it meets rigorous criteria for mechanical, electrical, structural and site-based factors. While underpinning today’s expanding digital infrastructure, the facility adheres to standards for environmental responsibility, which reinforces our dedication to sustainable, energy-efficient data centre development.
On top of that, we are focused on striking innovative partnerships and introducing other services that leverage our high-capacity digital infrastructure. For example, we have partnered with Huawei Cloud to launch Huawei’s first locally based public cloud region platform in Egypt and North Africa.
Last year, we also collaborated with AWS to launch a new Amazon CloudFront edge location in Cairo. This new edge location provides an average improvement of up to 30% in latency for customers in Egypt, enhancing the delivery of static and dynamic content, APIs, and live and on-demand video.
Furthermore, in October we partnered with Colt Technology Services to launch two new high-speed internet transit nodes in Cairo and Alexandria, hosted in our state-of-the-art data centre facilities.
These initiatives not only reinforce Egypt’s position as a regional digital hub, but also enable businesses and the government to accelerate their digital transformation efforts.
How do all these activities set Telecom Egypt up for 2025 and beyond?
At Telecom Egypt, we take a highly focused approach to the development of infrastructure and services, ensuring that we have high-quality networks in the right places to support the growing capacity demands of today.
By striking the right partnerships to maximise the potential of these networks and running well-targeted services on top of them, we are able to address rising demands from AI, IoT and cloud-driven applications. Additionally, our investments in scalable infrastructure, smart city initiatives and 5G readiness further strengthen our ability to meet these evolving needs.
Although achieving this balance comes with big challenges, we believe we are in an ideal position to meet them given our legacy of robust, resilient networks and our standing as an intercontinental hub. With this foundation, we are ready to lead the way in enabling regions and countries to achieve their digital visions for the long-term future.
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