Telecom Egypt announced that it has signed a landing party agreement with Pakistan & East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) Cable International Network Co. and PCCW Global, the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecom service provider. PEACE is a 12,000 km long cable system with landings in Pakistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya and France that provides open, flexible and carrier-neutral services for its customers.
The PEACE cable will cross Egypt through new diversified terrestrial routes between the Zafarana and Abou Talat cable landing stations, where Telecom Egypt will provide PEACE with brand new state of the art landing facilities. The total value of the agreement amounts to USD 45mn over the lifetime of the cable.
Adel Hamed, Telecom Egypt’s managing director and chief executive officer said, “I am very pleased with the signing of the landing party and crossing agreement as this marks the addition of another cable system to Telecom Egypt’s huge network of submarine cables crossing Egypt exhibiting clearly that Egypt is the ideal digital route and partner of choice for international traffic from the East to the West.
“Telecom Egypt boasts several differentiation factors in the submarine cable industry that will enable it to realize its vision to become a regional and African digital hub for content providers. These include Egypt’s premium geographic location and the company’s efforts in continuously modernizing and expanding its international network through the addition of new landing stations and the establishment of highly reliable diversified crossing routes.”
Moreover, Telecom Egypt signed a binding letter of intent (LoI) with Pakistan & East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) Cable International Network Co. and its affiliate Hengtong optic-electric, the Chinese technology and industrial giant, enriching the partnership between PEACE and Telecom Egypt further and extending it to other service lines.
Under the LoI, PEACE will be granted an additional fiber pair to its redundant cross Egypt routes to accommodate PEACE extensive demand to Europe with a total value of USD 20mn, and in return Hengtong shall provide Telecom Egypt with fiber optic cables of different cores based on competitive pricing that will be utilized in the operator’s strategic plans for fiber deployment inside Egypt. The agreement enacting the LoI is expected to be completed within the coming two months.
