Mobily lands Africa-1 subsea cable in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian telco Etihad Etisalat (a.k.a. Mobily) announced on Tuesday it has successfully landed the Africa-1 subsea cable in Duba, which it says will position the country as a key international data exchange hub.

The Africa-1 club cable runs from Pakistan to France via the Red Sea route, with landing points in Kenya, Djibouti, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The  10,000-km cable – which is being built by Alcatel Submarine Networks – features eight fibre pairs with a designed capacity of 96 Tbps.

Mobily CEO Salman Al-Badran the Africa-1 cable will not only enhance its global network by strengthening regional and international connectivity, but also open new business opportunities in new markets.

“The cable's high-speed data capabilities are critical for powering 5G networks, artificial intelligence systems, and other bandwidth-intensive applications,” he said in a statement. “It also strengthens data transmission for IoT devices and cloud services, driving the acceleration of digital transformation.”

Apart from Mobily, Africa-1’s other investors include Etisalat UAE, G42, Omantel, Pakistan Telecommunications Company Ltd (PTCL), TeleYemen and Telecom Egypt. The cable system – which was initially planned to be ready for service in 2023 – is now expected to be fully operational by early 2026, according to Mobily.