Telecom Egypt and subsea data system supplier SubCom have successfully completed two cable landing stations in Egypt for the India-Europe-Xpress (IEX) subsea cable system. The 10,000-km IEX system is designed to connect Mumbai directly with Milan, Italy, with landing points in Oman, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Greece.
The two new cable landing stations in Egypt have been installed at Zafarana2 on the Red Sea coast and Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean coast. According to Telecom Egypt, IEX is the first international cable to connect via the Sidi Kerir landing station and the fourth at Zafarana2. Both stations are interconnected via two diversified trans-Egypt terrestrial crossing routes for added redundancy.
Mohamed Nasr, Managing Director and CEO of Telecom Egypt, highlighted Egypt’s growing role as a reliable hub connecting Africa, Europe, and Asia. He noted that IEX is the fifth subsea cable to land in Egypt over the past decade. “By providing landing and crossing services at Zafarana2 and Sidi Kerir, and linking them through two novel crossing routes diverse from those already used by the current 14 subsea systems crossing Egypt, we are offering our international partners unique opportunities with our state-of-the-art, highly reliable services and continuously developed international infrastructure,” Nasr said.
The IEX cable is primarily owned by China Mobile and Reliance Jio Infocomm, who are also constructing the India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) subsea cable connecting Mumbai with Singapore. SubCom has been tasked with engineering, manufacturing, and deploying both cables, which will interconnect.
Both systems feature 13 fiber pairs utilizing SubCom’s space-division multiplexing (SDM) and wavelength selective switch (WSS) ROADM technology. The IEX is scheduled to be ready for service next year, while the IAX is expected to go live later this month.