By Simon Dux

Communications ministry makes claim as Ifriqiya submarine cable branch pronounced ready for service after landing last month

A government spokesperson said Tunisia has identified a need for around 6 or 7 submarine cables and the country has invited operators to invest in making this a reality. The chief of staff of the minister of communication technologies Kamel Saadaoui made the claim to local news agency TAP at the ready for service ceremony for the Ifriqiya submarine cable.

Ifriqiya, which has a capacity up to 3Tbps, is connected to the main route between Marseille in France and Abu Talaat in Egypt over a 950km length from the Bizerte connection point. It is part of PCCW’s 15,000km Peace subsea cable, built by Huawei, which links Marseilles in France to Egypt and on to Pakistan, Kenya in 2022 and Singapore last year. The cable has a capacity of up to 96Tbps for the Pakistan-Egypt segment and 192Tbps for the Mediterranean segment from Egypt to France.

Ifriqiya landed at the Ain Meriem area of Bizerte, which is also currently the landing point for the SeaMeWe-4 cable. A branch of the Medusa cable is also set to land there (via Marseilles) with Orange as the partner. Tunisia’s other landing point is in Kelibia, which hosts the Didon cable (owned by Orange and Ooredoo), Hannibal, and Trapani-Kelibia cable systems. 

Saadaoui said Ifriqiya was part of the nation’s strategy and represents one of the priorities in the development of the basic infrastructure of telecommunications networks, as well as an ideal infrastructure for the launch of 5G services.

Ooredoo Tunisia CEO, Mansour Rachid El-Khater, said that the Ifriqiya project is one of the strategic projects launched by Ooredoo to connect the northern Tunisian coast from the city of Bizerte to the city of Marseille in France “in record time”.