Telecom Egypt links continents
Telecom Egypt (TE) has announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to roll out a $520 million submarine telecoms cable with the UAE's Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat), Saudi Telecom, Telecom Italia Sparkle and India's VSNL. The cable will link countries across the Middle East and Europe with India, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy and France. Completion of the cable, which will provide interconnection facilities, is expected by mid-2008 with construction awards expected by late 2006. The cable will use dense wavelength division multiplexing technology and will have a design capacity of 2,560 GB a second.
TE is also a major shareholder in a second subsea cable project that was granted a licence by the Telecommunications Ministry in mid-November. The cable will connect European, Middle East and Asian networks. Other local companies involved in the project include the local Raya Holding for Technology & Communications, Malaysia's Asianet and Mobily and Bayanat al-Oula, both Saudi-based. The group is in negotiations with contractors and expects to make an award for the $120 million first phase by early 2007.
Amr Badawi, head of Egypt's National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, says investors are eager 'to take advantage of Egypt's unique position, connecting Asia with Europe'.
Egypt already hosts three transcontinental undersea cables - the SEA-ME-WE (Southeast Asia/Middle East/West Europe) 3 and 4 cables and the FLAG Telecom cable linking India to Europe. Badawi says two more applications to build new cables have already been submitted.
www.meed.com/telecomsit
Telecom Egypt (TE) has announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to roll out a $520 million submarine telecoms cable with the UAE's Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat), Saudi Telecom, Telecom Italia Sparkle and India's VSNL. The cable will link countries across the Middle East and Europe with India, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy and France. Completion of the cable, which will provide interconnection facilities, is expected by mid-2008 with construction awards expected by late 2006. The cable will use dense wavelength division multiplexing technology and will have a design capacity of 2,560 GB a second.
TE is also a major shareholder in a second subsea cable project that was granted a licence by the Telecommunications Ministry in mid-November. The cable will connect European, Middle East and Asian networks. Other local companies involved in the project include the local Raya Holding for Technology & Communications, Malaysia's Asianet and Mobily and Bayanat al-Oula, both Saudi-based. The group is in negotiations with contractors and expects to make an award for the $120 million first phase by early 2007. Amr Badawi, head of Egypt's National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, says investors are eager 'to take advantage of Egypt's unique position, connecting Asia with Europe'. Egypt already hosts three transcontinental undersea cables - the SEA-ME-WE (Southeast Asia/Middle East/West Europe) 3 and 4 cables and the FLAG Telecom cable linking India to Europe. Badawi says two more applications to build new cables have already been submitted. www.meed.com/telecomsitThis content is only available to full MEED package subscribers (MEED magazine and MEED.com).
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