Egypt invests more than US$300 billion in developing the network of internet submarine cables, said Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat on Sunday.

The annual revenues expected to be gained through these investments amount to US$7 billion, Talaat added.

From the beginning of the internet industry until 2016, Egypt has implemented 13 submarine cables, and other five are under process, Talaat said during the Hikayat Watan conference held on Saturday to showcase the country’s achievements in various fields since 2014.

“Around 90 per cent of the data transferred worldwide passes through the Egyptian territorial waters due to its distinctive strategic location,” he stated.

In 2019, Egypt established the shortest submarine path, named the Golden Path, to transfer data between East and West with a 2650-kilometre length, the minister pointed out.

Talaat highlighted that Egypt increased the number of landing stations in the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea to 10, which will accelerate telecommunication signals and provide high-quality internet connectivity.

On Sunday, Telecom Egypt signed an agreement with the Medusa Submarine Cable System to extend the Mediterranean network to the Red Sea by the end of 2025.

The country invested US$2 billion to develop its digital infrastructure of high-speed landline internet.

Fortunately, the speed increased nine-fold in the last five years, Talaat said.

He also noted earlier that recently the total number of Egypt’s users of fixed internet services has significantly hiked, reaching 70 million.