Medusa will be the longest submarine cable system in the Mediterranean Sea and will connect eleven countries in North Africa and Southern Europe by 2024 and 2025

Orange Tunisia and Medusa Submarine Cable System, a neutral and independent submarine infrastructure operator in the Mediterranean, signed an agreement on Thursday 11 May to deploy a submarine cable linking Tunisia (Bizerte) to Europe, via France (Marseilles). This cable will be built in compliance with the latest international standards and rules and will benefit the socio-economic participants in Tunisia.

Designed using the latest submarine optical fibre technologies, it will also offer a new, very high-speed connectivity solution and will improve the security of the existing Internet connectivity.

Medusa will be the first, and longest, submarine cable to connect all of the countries in the Mediterranean. Specifically, the system will connect the two shores of the Mediterranean and travel from Lisbon to the Egyptian city of Port Said, passing various Mediterranean countries en route. It will have 16 landing points in different countries including Portugal, Morocco, Spain, Algeria, France, Tunisia, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Egypt.

At more than 8,000 km in length, this new infrastructure will provide diversity and an additional route made up of several pairs of fibres with a capacity of 20 terabits each in order to meet Tunisia’s growing connectivity needs. Implementation is scheduled for the end of 2025.

It should not be forgotten that Orange Tunisia previously set up the Didon cable in 2014, linking Tunisia to Europe, in partnership with the operator Ooredoo Tunisia.

With the investment in a second submarine cable, Orange Tunisia continues to work to improve the service quality of its network and thus support the country’s digital transformation, while also strengthening Tunisia’s attractiveness as a continental digital hub.

About Orange Tunisia

Orange Tunisia, the first convergent alternative operator in the country, has more than 1,000 employees serving more than 4 million customers throughout the territory. Thanks to both its know-how and its technological innovation, Orange Tunisia is aiming to become the leading operator in Tunisia, while maintaining balanced growth that creates value for everyone. In this strategic vision of shared growth, Orange Tunisia has decided to deploy a responsible, human and united operating approach by using technology and digital innovation to benefit the country’s socio-economic development.

About Medusa

Medusa is a private, independent and neutral submarine infrastructure operator in the Mediterranean region, based in Dublin (Ireland).
The Medusa Submarine Cable System is an undersea fibre optic system connecting the eastern and western Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean, creating a new corridor from Asia to the Atlantic, and enabling the development of the information society and its participants across the region. Digital connectivity will form the basis of the region’s economic development. By directly interconnecting Europe and Africa, Medusa will contribute to bridging the digital divide.