3/4/2022 – Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), part of Nokia, has signed a contract to be the supplier for a Mediterranean project that will require 8,700 km of submarine cables.

A press release said that the order is from AFR-IX telecom, a Spanish infrastructure and telecom operator. Dubbed the Medusa, the cable will connect the two shores of the Mediterranean. It will interconnect nine countries of the Mediterranean Sea through landing points in Portugal, Morocco, Spain, Algeria, France, Tunisia, Italy, Greece and Egypt.
The submarine cable is expected to be operational between late 2024 for its West part and the beginning of 2025 for its East part, with segments accommodating up to 24 fiber pairs with a capacity of 20 Tbit/s per fiber pair.

Per multiple media reports, citing a statement from AFE-IC CEO Albi Norman, “There is a combination of factors that lead us to invest in this cable: in addition to the fact that there are some submarine cables in the Mediterranean that are reaching the end of their life cycle (and that need alternatives), it is known that the telecommunications traffic generated in Africa has grown at an average of 55% per year.”

Per submarinenetworks.com, the AFR-IX telecom is part of a public-private consortium that also includes the University of Alcalá, the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC) and Aragón Photonics. The Medusa cable, which follows the open cable standard, is estimated to cost €326 million.

Greenblatt said he wants to aggressively grow the Madsen workforce— now about three dozen employees—by about 20%, to keep up with new business. “We’re planning to get Madsen to 45 or so in the next couple of weeks. We just want smart people who want to be part of a growing company.”