Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily), a Saudi-listed telecom operator, has announced the landing of Africa-1 submarine cable in the Kingdom’s Duba city, enhancing global and regional broadband connectivity.

The advanced submarine cable has a high capacity of 96 terabits per second and a speed spanning 10,000 km, enhancing broadband traffic across key regions in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.  

“The successful landing of the Africa-1 submarine cable in Saudi Arabia will contribute to increasing broadband capacities in the Kingdom and achieving the goals of Vision 2030,” Salman Al-Badran, CEO of Mobily.

The cable’s high-speed data capabilities are critical for powering 5G networks, artificial intelligence (AI) systems, and other bandwidth-intensive applications, he said.

It further strengthens data transmission for IoT devices and cloud services, accelerating digital transformation.

The submarine cable, funded by the Africa-1 consortium comprising eight partners, is expected to be fully operational by early 2026. 

The Africa-1 consortium comprises Algerie Telecom, e&, G42, Mobily, Pakistan Telecommunications Company Ltd (PTCL), Telecom Egypt, TeleYemen, and ZOI. Built and deployed by  Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), the system, stretching over 10,000 kilometres with 8 fibre pairs, links East Africa with the Middle East, South-Central Asia, and Europe.

Read more: Qatar's Ooredoo announces intra-GCC submarine cable project

(Editing by Anoop Menon) (anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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