A Barcelona company is monitoring something remarkable. An 8,700-kilometre underwater fibre optic cable is being laid across the Mediterranean. Barcelona Cable Landing Station oversees the project from Catalunya.
The cable, called Medusa, reached Marseille’s landing station this morning. It’s backed by AFR-IX Telecom, which owns Barcelona Cable Landing Station and is also based in Catalunya.
Once complete, Medusa will connect Europe and Africa. The initial section links Marseille with Bizerte in Tunisia and Nador in Morocco. Those connections should be ready this October and December respectively.
The remaining deployment continues throughout next year. It’s an ambitious timeline for such a massive project.
So what’s the capacity? Each segment houses up to 24 fibre pairs. Each fibre handles 20 terabytes per second. That’s enormous bandwidth connecting two continents.
AFR-IX Telecom’s CEO Norman Albi believes the project will be transformative. ‘It will mark a before and after in communications between both continents,’ he stated.
Mediterranean submarine cables aren’t new. However, Medusa’s scale and capacity represent a significant upgrade. The route spans multiple countries and covers thousands of kilometres of seabed.
Barcelona’s role in the project highlights the city’s growing importance in digital infrastructure. The monitoring capability allows real-time oversight of the entire installation process.
For North African countries, better connectivity with Europe means improved digital access. Meanwhile, European networks gain enhanced links to Africa’s growing tech sector.
Join our WhatsApp broadcast channel to get all of the news delivered to you
