Telecom Egypt announced on Monday its collaboration with Zain-International Omantel (ZOI) to create a digital corridor connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Arabian Sea and the Arabian Gulf. This will be an unprecedented route for data transfer between Asia and Europe.
The digital corridor will span from the coasts of Oman on the Arabian Sea and the Arabian Gulf to the coast of Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea. It will use a combination of terrestrial and marine routes, with a large number of optical fibers.
The terrestrial routes through Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt will be reliable and highly protected. A submarine cable in the Red Sea will connect Saudi Arabia and Egypt directly, with high capacities and a significant number of optical fibers. This will shorten the distance between the landing points.
The digital corridor will offer integrated solutions from the Arabian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, in line with ZOI’s expansion plans to cover multiple regions, such as Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, and Jordan, through its network. The collaboration will also work with licensed companies for submarine cable landings in each country.
The collaboration will provide cable owners with unique and competitive solutions that will lower construction costs, improve data transfer times and flexibility, and speed up operations by connecting to this open corridor. Telecom Egypt will also develop new infrastructure across Egypt, linking the Red and Mediterranean Seas to Europe, and integrating with ZOI’s infrastructure in various regions in the Middle East. The new network corridor will shorten the routes and quicken the data response times, making it the preferred choice for crossing from the Indian Ocean to Europe for submarine cable operators, content providers, and telecommunication companies.
Mohamed Nasr, the Managing Director and CEO of Telecom Egypt, said that this project will be a turning point in the field of international connectivity between Asia and Europe.
