Egypt’s incumbent telecommunications operator, Telecom Egypt (TE), signed three technology agreements on April 27, 2019, with China’s PEACE Cable International Network Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Hengtong Optic Electric, PCCW Global, a subsidiary of HKT, and Huawei. It was part of the Digital Economy Initiative of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing from April 25 to 27, 2019. 

In the presence of Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, the first agreement signed by TE’s Chief Executive Officer, Adel Hamed, with PEACE Cable International Network Co. Ltd. and PCCW Global, addresses transit. 

It expects the Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe cable (PEACE), a 12,000 km submarine cable system with landing points in Pakistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya and France, deployed by PCCW Global , crosses Egypt through various new land routes linking the two Zaafarana landing stations to Abu Talat, where TE will provide state-of-the-art landing facilities. The total value of this agreement is estimated at US $ 45 million over the life of the cable.

The second agreement between TE, PEACE and its parent company, Hengtong Optic Electric, is to provide the Egyptian telecommunications operator with another transit route to meet the growing demand for traffic to Europe. Financial value of this agreement: 20 million US dollars. Hengtong will also supply TE’s competitively priced fiber optic cable, which will be used in the implementation of its strategic plan to cover the entire country with fiber optics.

Finally, the third agreement signed between TE and Huawei concerns cooperation in the field of advanced mobile networks. The goal is to upgrade and expand the networks and services provided to customers by TE.

Source: Agence Ecofin