Telecom Egypt Signs Sharm El Sheikh–Taba Subsea Cable Deal

In Short

• Telecom Egypt is building a new Sharm El Sheikh–Taba subsea cable with Power Sub Link.
• The cable is about 200 km long and is designed for around five petabits per second of capacity.
• It is expected to be ready for service in Q4 2027.

What Happened

Telecom Egypt has signed an agreement to construct the Sharm El Sheikh–Taba subsea cable as part of its updated infrastructure strategy. Power Sub Link (PSL) will implement the project.

The Sharm El Sheikh–Taba link will extend Telecom Egypt’s Red Sea Subsea Festoon Cable System to Taba. A “festoon” cable system is a series of linked coastal landing points, like a chain running along the shoreline.

Telecom Egypt said the extension creates a continuous subsea path connecting Suez, Zafarana, Ras Ghareb, Sharm El Sheikh, and Taba. The company is positioning this as a step in strengthening Egypt’s role as a regional connectivity hub.

The new cable is described as repeaterless, high-fiber-count, and around 200 km long. Repeaterless means it does not rely on signal-boosting devices along the cable route, which can reduce complexity on shorter segments.

Telecom Egypt also said the project supports connectivity between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, via the country’s Internet Corridor of Egypt (ICE). In practice, that means more route options for international carriers sending traffic across Egypt.

Why It Matters

Subsea cables are a core part of how internet traffic moves between regions. More landing points and more paths can improve resilience, which is the ability to keep working when there is damage or congestion on another route.

For African networks and cloud providers routing traffic between Asia, Africa, and Europe, added route diversity can reduce outage risk and improve latency, which is the delay users feel during online activity.

Telecom Egypt’s focus on capacity also matters. Five petabits per second is a high design figure, and it signals the scale of demand expected from carriers, content providers, and data center operators over the next few years.