Egypt’s future as internet cable hub at risk from proposed Google fiber optic network
Google intends to build a new corridor for internet traffic via a fiber optic network for the first time between Israel and Saudi Arabia, linking Asia to Europe, which is seen as a threat to Egypt's future as a major transit point for international submarine cables.
Egypt’s Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR) decided Dec. 5 to prevent media presenter Osama Kamal from appearing on his own TV program “90 Minutes,” on Al-Mehwar satellite channel for two weeks. The TV channel was also fined 100,000 Egyptian pounds (roughly $6,400). The decision comes following the program’s episode during which Kamal accused Egyptian officials of corruption and held them responsible for making Egypt lose its position as a strategic central transit point for international submarine communications cables, to the benefit of Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The "90 Minutes" program continued without Kamal.
Egypt is seen as a hub for submarine cables for transmitting internet from Asia and Africa to Europe, with 17 cables passing through Egyptian territorial waters via six major stations, according to the submarine cable map of TeleGeography, a Washington-based research and consulting company in the telecommunications market.
SCMR’s decision came after a complaint was filed with the council by the state-owned Telecom Egypt, the sole operator of terrestrial connections across Egypt for submarine internet cables. On his show, Kamal spoke of a project that Google intends to implement, by building for the first time a new corridor for global internet traffic through a fiber-optic network between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which will bypass Egypt.
