Telecom Egypt and Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) have announced they signed a $125 million contract to deploy a new submarine cable network linking Sidi Kerir in Egypt to Marseille in France.

 

With the project named TE North, Egypt can provide diversity from existing cable routes by expanding international connectivity as well as expand its service offering to businesses and consumers and enhance its network capacity to operate as a wholesale carrier to other operators.

 

Alcatel-Lucent will assist Telecom Egypt in providing capacity to meet the increased demand for innovative applications.

 

Akil Beshir, Chairman and CEO of Telecom Egypt, said in a press release, “Egypt has a young population with a growing demand for more and more capacity. In addition Telecom Egypt has decades long tradition of being the partner of choice to all Asia-Europe submarine cable systems, by providing the infrastructure for crossing from Red to Mediterranean Seas. Today, through TE North, we extend the Telecom Egypt service footprint by offering an option to extend this infrastructure from the Red Sea to Europe. Alcatel-Lucent’s turnkey expertise and technological lead in submarine networks shall help us achieve our project and business objectives on time.”

 

TE North can deliver an ultimate capacity of 128 x 10Gbit/s on eight fiber pairs as it spans over 3,100 km, making it one of the largest cable systems in the region.

 

With this, Telecom Egypt will have the ability to offer broadband services at more affordable costs. And will reinforce the city of Marseille as a communications hub with ‘open access’ facilities as well as establish Egypt’s role as international communication hub between Europe and Asia/Africa.