Interoute to link pan-European network to N Africa

Tunisie Telecom has signed a contract with Interoute to establish a subsea cable linking North Africa to Interoute's pan-European fibre optic network. The cable, due to land in Sicily in October, gives Tunisia ownership over the flow of its internet traffic and removes the reliance on consortium owned subsea cables such as SEAMEWE 4: Tunisian IP traffic tripled in 2008.
 
The venture will see a 170km unrepeated fibre optic cable run from Kelibia, Tunisia, to Interoute's landing station in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily.
 
From Sicily the cable will connect to Interoute's pan-European fibre optic network providing access to 24 countries. The new cable will offer 3.2Tbps of capacity enough to stream 4 million YouTube videos simultaneously. On completion, this will be Interoute's seventh European landing station connecting sub sea systems into its pan European network.