Telecom Egypt (TE), Egypt’s first integrated telecom operator, has announced its plan to launch the Hybrid African Ring Path (HARP) by 2023.
The project is a new subsea system that will circle around the African continent, forming the shape of a harp. It will connect coastal and landlocked African countries to Europe through the company’s widespread terrestrial and subsea infrastructure.
Through HARP, TE will offer a wide range of capacity solutions, up to dark fibre, based on a layer two and layer three architecture, which can connect multiple points on the system to one another.
The system will connect Africa’s eastern and western areas to Europe, from South Africa to Italy and France along the continent’s East Coast, and to Portugal along its West Coast.
Highly reliable terrestrial routes will connect the landing points within South Africa, Europe, and Egypt, forming a complete ring around the continent. The HARP system will leverage its diverse and resilient subsea segments to branch out to multiple potential landing points.
The system’s planned routes will cross Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, with multiple ring protection topologies, and will extend to include premium routes on both banks of the Suez Canal.
Sharm El-Sheikh, located at the southern tip of Sinai, will serve as a new landing point, and will be connected to coastal cities along the Gulf of Suez. This will form a hybrid terrestrial and subsea fibre connectivity solution between landing points in Egypt.
Adel Hamed, Managing Director and CEO at TE, said that the company is very proud of the upcoming launch of this new system.
It will provide seamless connectivity services to the African continent by integrating Telecom Egypt’s current and planned projects to offer end-to-end connectivity solutions. HARP will enable TE’s plans to establish open points of presence in various new locations in Africa and Europe to serve its enterprise and wholesale customers.
It will also support the digital transformation efforts exerted throughout African nations, and expand the company’s international footprint.
