PCCW Global Signs Historic Egyptian Landing Party Agreement for PEACE Cable System

PCCW Global and Telecom Egypt have signed a landing party agreement.

This agreement will enable the Pakistan & East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) cable system to land and cross Egypt, effectively linking Asia, Africa and Europe with a 12,000km ultra-low latency high-speed cable system that will relieve critical congestion on one of the busiest data routes in the world.

Representing an important milestone in the PEACE cable system’s development, the trilateral agreement between Telecom Egypt, PCCW Global and HENGTONG allows the system to cross Egypt through new diversified terrestrial routes connecting Zafarana and Abu Talat, where new  landing facilities have been constructed. PCCW Global and HENGTONG will cooperate in the PEACE Mediterranean undersea segment of the cable that will then link Egypt to Europe through a landing point in Marseille, France amongst other landing points in the Mediterranean Sea.

PEACE is a privately owned cable system connecting three of the largest and most populous continents in the world—Asia, Africa and Europe. Other cable systems, such as AAE-1 that was previously constructed by a consortium of carriers including PCCW Global, also connect similar regions. However, increased global demand for connectivity is resulting in congestion on the busy route.

In addition, Africa has the fastest-growing youth population in the world and is a market particularly ripe for investment because of the rapidly growing number of Internet users and a corresponding increased demand for connectivity.

When complete, PCCW says, the PEACE cable system will provide the shortest and most direct data route from North Asia to Europe, combined with exceptionally low latency, which is vitally important for a wide array of commercial and consumer applications.

The PEACE cable system features an innovative open business model that provides for greater flexibility, as well as state-of-the-art branching unit technology that enables each country’s bandwidth allocation to be modified during the lifetime of the cable. Traditionally, once a cable is laid and sunk into the ocean, such bandwidth flexibility is not possible without overall service interruption as well as costly maintenance procedures.

In addition, the PEACE cable system deploys a “system within a system” configuration, allowing individual cable stakeholders the ability to design the network to their own specifications as required without impacting others using the same cable system.