Potential New African Subsea Cable

Medusa is seeking to extend its Mediterranean subsea cable network to Africa's West coast. Full funding has not been secured. Rumor has it that Medusa is trying to get the balance required from Hong Kong investors. CEO vehemently denies it. System would have 16 fibre pairs and extend down the West coast of Africa to Capetown. There are a couple of factors driving Medusa's interest. Although Equiano dropped many branching units in the water, there have been few takers. This means most West Coast countries have only one modern cable, 2Africa, for transport. Moreover, it is likely that 2Africa capacity will go fast. A quarter belongs to Facebook. Moreover, there will be substantial migration from ACE and WACS to 2Africa due to the latter's superior reliability and much lower pricing. So it is likely 2Africa will be maxed out in 3 to 5 years.

Another key driver is avoiding the Red Sea. Right now the 2Africa Marseille/Mombasa and Oman routes cannot be completed due to regional hostilities. The same holds for Africa-1, Blue-Raman, SWM6, and IEX. Medusa management clearly sees an opportunity to grab African subsea market share due its extensive European landings, which include Lisbon, Barcelona, and Marseille.

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