MENA Submarine Cable System

Overview

The MENA Submarine Cable System is an active submarine cable connecting Egypt with countries across southern Europe and the Arabian Peninsula. Owned by Telecom Egypt, the system entered service in November 2014 and extends the Egyptian state carrier's direct stake in international subsea infrastructure.

Route and Connectivity

The cable serves five countries: Egypt, Greece, Italy, Oman and Saudi Arabia. That combination places MENA at an interesting crossroads — bridging the Mediterranean basin with the Gulf region through Egypt's geographic position as a natural transit corridor between Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Traffic moving between southern Europe and the Arabian Peninsula can route through this system without relying solely on the heavily loaded corridors through the Suez region that larger multi-owner cables typically follow.

Specific landing point locations and the cable's precise routing have not been publicly documented, and total system length and design capacity figures are likewise not on record.

Ownership and Build

Telecom Egypt holds sole ownership of the MENA system, consistent with the operator's broader strategy of controlling cable assets that anchor Egypt's role as a global transit hub. Egypt sits between multiple cable corridors connecting Europe to Asia and Africa, and Telecom Egypt has leveraged that position through both co-ownership stakes in major international systems and direct ownership of cables like MENA. The builder of the system has not been publicly identified.

Regional Context

Within the regional cable mix, MENA occupies a specialised niche. While larger multi-terabit systems dominate the Europe–Middle East–Asia trunk routes, a Telecom Egypt-controlled cable serving Greece, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Oman gives the operator a degree of routing independence and a direct commercial relationship with partners at each end — without depending on consortium governance structures that govern most major cables in the region.