Telecom Egypt and SubCom Complete Egypt Landings for IEX Subsea Cable System
Telecom Egypt, the full-service telecom operator in Egypt and one of the largest subsea cables operators in the region, and SubCom, the global subsea data system supplier, along with the India-Europe-Xpress (IEX) partners, announced the successful completion of IEX Subsea system’s landings in Egypt. The novel subsea system, which lands in Egypt at two cable landing stations — Zafarana2 on the Red Sea and Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean — connects two seas and two continents over two diversified trans-Egypt terrestrial crossing routes. Upon completion, IEX will directly connect India (Mumbai) to Europe (Milan, Italy), improving diversity along the route and enabling partners to provide their customers with more advanced, high-capacity services to meet the growing global digital demand.
By securing a smooth, speedy and flexible local cycle of permits, approvals and landing related logistics, Telecom Egypt played a significant role in facilitating the landing of this new, significant cable connecting Mumbai to Europe in two major segments; with each segment designed for high-capacity transmission with 13 fiber pairs. Telecom Egypt is providing IEX with landing facilities and support in Egypt, as well as new diverse terrestrial crossings between these facilities. On the other hand, SubCom was selected to engineer, manufacture, and deploy the 10,000km IEX system, which includes their space-division multiplexing (SDM) and Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS) ROADM technology.
Being the nexus between three continents, and thanks to its extensive coastlines on both the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt is the most reliable and trusted hub connecting Africa, Europe, and Asia. Building on its well-established history in the subsea cable industry and the country’s remarkable geography, Telecom Egypt continues to successfully provide unmatched crossing solutions to the international network of submarine cable systems.
Leveraging its cutting-edge infrastructure, Telecom Egypt played a pivotal role in connecting the IEX subsea cable system terrestrially between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. By providing landing and crossing services at Zafarana2 and Sidi Kerir landing stations, and linking them through two novel crossing route diverse from those already used by the current 14 subsea systems crossing Egypt, we are presenting our international partners with unique opportunities via our state-of-the-art, highly reliable services and continuously developed international infrastructure. IEX subsea system is the fifth subsea to land in Egypt over the past decade and the tenth in terms of landings count. In addition, it is the first landing to take place at Sidi Kerir landing station and the fourth at Zafarana2. Through these important projects, Telecom Egypt aims to diversify its services and consolidate its placement as a main international telecommunications hub in the region. Our mission is to develop our infrastructure in line with the latest technologies and international standards, in addition to providing distinctive, competitive, commercial offerings to our partners and customers both locally and internationally.
Mohamed Nasr, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Telecom Egypt
SubCom is very pleased to play a key role in the deployment of the IEX subsea cable system and to mark this milestone with the IEX consortium and its landing parties. Our team continues to demonstrate that when data-driven organizations require reliability and expertise, SubCom has the capacity and capabilities to transform any project vision into a reality.
David Coughlan, President and CEO, SubCom