The geographic position of Egypt allows for an efficient crossing from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea for submarine cable systems.
Telecom Egypt (TE) is Egypt’s only fixed network operator, owns and operates the TE Transit Corridor, which comprises the terrestrial infrastructure linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, over multiple diverse and redundant routes. Additional terrestrial routes over the Sinai Peninsula add to the unique resilience of the TE Transit Corridor and favourable submarine cable build economics by avoiding shallow waters.
There are now six major cable landing stations for subsea cables crossing Egypt, Abu Talat CLS, Alexandria CLS and Port Said CLS on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Suez CLS, Zafarana CLS and Ras Ghareb CLS on the coast of the Red Sea. There are now 17 submarine cable systems connecting Egpyt and another 5 cables under construction (2Africa, Africa-1, IEX, Medusa, SMW6). And there is also a Trans Border Terrestrial Cables with Libya & Sudan. Besides the six cable landing stations in the Red Sea-Mediterranean Corridor, there is a cable landing station in Taba for the Taba-Aqaba submarine cable system conneting Taba in Egypt and Aqaba in Jordan.
Alexandria CLS:
Abu Talat CLS:
Port Said CLS
Suez CLS:
Zafarana CLS:
Ras Ghareb CLS:
Taba CLS
The Port Said CLS and the Ras Ghareb CLS are new cable landing stations which Telecom Egypt builds for 2Africa cable system and other new cables, to provide brand-new terrestrial crossing routes linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the first in over a decade. 2Africa will land in the two sites in Egypt that were selected precisely to assure physical and geographical diversity. On the Red Sea, 2Africa will be landing in Ras Ghareb landing site which is located 100 Km south of the Zafarana Landing station, whereas the Mediterranean landing site, Port Said, is located 250 Km east of the Alexandria landing station. Both Ras Ghareb and Port Said are connected with two new and diverse terrestrial routes and includes the deployment of next generation fibre , the routes will be in vicinity with the Suez Canal from Suez to Port Said, and will be complemented with a third new marine path linking Ras Ghareb and Suez landing stations.
In March 2021, Telecom Egypt and Suez Canal Authority, in coordination with the Armed Forces Signal Corps, signed an agreement to create the new Egypt crossing terrestrial cable route for fiber optic internet cables between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean through Al Morshedeen Road.
Fore more information, please refer to the Study Report on Submarine Cables Crossing Egypt and their Costs.