Telecom operators sign MOU to build Asia-Africa-Europe subsea cable system

A consortium of four telecommunications operators: PCCW Global, Sparkle, Telecom Egypt and Zain Omantel International (ZOI), has signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the Asia-Africa-Europe-2 (AAE-2) subsea cable system, the companies announced in a joint statement.

The AAE-2 cable will link Hong Kong and Singapore to Italy through terrestrial corridors in Thailand, the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt. According to the consortium, the cable is planned to support cloud services, content delivery and other digital infrastructure needs between Asia, Africa and Europe by combining both subsea and terrestrial links.

The route will include strategic extensions to additional key destinations, though these were not specified in the announcement. The companies said AAE-2 would serve as a, “geographically diverse, resilient and high-performance,” route for international data traffic.

"AAE-2 will also benefit from accessing and cross-connecting with the other subsea cables," said Telecom Egypt CEO Mohamed Nasr. He highlighted that the project builds on the company’s investments in subsea cable infrastructure.

The consortium did not disclose a timeline for the project’s completion or investment details.