The Mysterious East-to-Med Corridor Cable

This project seeks to link Asia to Europe via the Saudi Arabian desert. Telecom Egypt is not a consortium member, which suggests it will bypass Egypt to avoid transit fees and provide new network routing diversity. Frankly, little known is about the project. Key consortium members including center3, a Saudi Telecom subsidiary, the Cyprus incumbent, a Greek power company, and a Greek satellite company. The consortium was formed on May 31, 2022. In May 2023, center3 signed a supply contract for the project with ASN. A supply contract in force suggests the consortium has raised the $850 million required to complete the project. 

I believe the high price tag reflects either a new route across the Saudi Arabian desert or a high fibre pair count. The project is bound to be controversial in Saudi Arabia because the terrestrial route traverses Jordan's Aqaba data center and reaches the Mediterranean Sea via Israel. Note that the Jordan label is much larger than the Israel label. This probably explains the under-the-radar nature of the project. The project is guaranteed to ruffle the feathers of Telecom Egypt as transit fees are almost 15% of its gross revenues. The Blue-Raman project also involved both Israel and Saudi Arabia and the result was that it was technically divided into two separate cables, Blue and Raman, with identical ownership and control. This way Saudi Arabia could say Raman terminated in Jordan. 

I hope the project succeeds because the subsea cable industry needs new routes that are diverse to Egypt. It also needs lower operating expenses as well. This means subsea cables that traverse Saudi Arabia and Israel. It is quite possible that this project will be RFS in a year or two. What I don't know is whether the cable will have a branching unit to India. That would be very interesting given the tight telecom duopoly that controls almost all Indian subsea connectivity.