Tunisia signals its digital independence with a new sub sea cable linking North Africa to Interoute’s pan European network

Tunisie Telecom’s high capacity fibre optic cable brings resilience and diversity for Tunisia’s broadband users

26 March 2009 – 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. By connecting to Interoute’s advanced fibre optic network, Tunisie Telecom will have access to the independent operator’s innovative services and competitive pricing model. This is crucial to keeping the incumbent carriers competitive and places Tunisie Telecom at the forefront of the continued broadband boom – 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 a speed of light route to Paris and access to 24 networked countries. The new cable will offer 3.2 Terabyte per second of capacity, capable of streaming approximately 4,000,000 simultaneous YouTube videos. On completion, this will be Interoute’s seventh European landing station connecting sub sea systems into its pan European network.

Gareth Williams, CEO Interoute commented, “Interoute is proud to be part of the movement to support the growing North African market with high speed, high capacity connectivity. We have previously linked the UK and Scandinavia to our pan European network (via submarine cables in the North and Baltic seas) and the Balkan countries via a subsea cable to Greece for OTE Globe, and Malta with GO. This bold new project from Tunisia Telecom will ensure that nation’s rapid broadband growth and developing tech industry will be supported for many years to come. This project also secures Tunisia’s place as the leader in bridging North Africa’s digital divide, bringing the region on-net to the European Union.”

“In the past year repeated submarine cables outages in the Mediterranean have demonstrated the value of having multiple cables that offer diversity,” said Alan Mauldin, Research Director, TeleGeography. “Tunisie Telecom’s new cable, supported by Interoute’s pan European fibre optic network, will provide the additional capacity and resiliency the country needs to meet the needs of Internet users and enterprises in the country.”

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About Interoute

Interoute is the owner operator of Europe’s most advanced and densely connected voice and data network, encompassing over 56,000 km of lit fibre and 59 data centres. Its full-service next generation network serves more than 3,000 customers across a broad range of sectors from finance to retail and every major European incumbent, as well as the major operators of North America, East and South Asia, governments, universities and research agencies. These organisations find Interoute the ideal partner for hosting content, providing wholesale transit services, corporate access or creating new services. With established operations throughout mainland Europe, North America and Dubai Interoute also owns and operates dense city networks throughout Europe’s major business centres. More than €1 billion in e-commerce transactions flows through its data centres each day, making Interoute a key part of Europe’s Digital Supply Chain. www.interoute.com

About Tunisie Télécom

Tunisie Telecom is the Tunisian’s leading provider of national and international telecommunications’ services and Internet. Tunisie Telecom serves more than 6 million customers worldwide. Being a leader in the mobile telephony market in Tunisia with more than 4.3 million subscribers and 50.3 % of market share, Tunisie Telecom is the only fixed-line telecommunications provider in Tunisia. Tunisie Telecom, the incumbent telecom operator, is owned by the Tunisian state at 65%. The consortium of United Arab Emirates Tecom-Dig, a subsidiary of Dubai Holding owns 35% of Tunisie Telecom’s capital. Tunisie Telecom operates a GSM network in Mauritania called “Mattel”.

For further information www.tunisietelecom.tn