Zain KSA starts work to connect Middle East to Africa via J2M undersea cable

Logo of Mobile Telecommunication Company Saudi Arabia

Mobile Telecommunication Co. Saudi Arabia (Zain KSA) announced the start of connecting the Middle East with Africa through the J2M (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Marseille, France) submarine cable system, the company said in a statement.

Jeddah will be the cable landing station in the Kingdom through Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) cable system.

Through the investment in J2M, which will be ready for service in early 2023 with Zain KSA as the cable landing party, the telco will achieve a higher degree of diversity in its international infrastructure. In addition, it will make available to global carriers and enterprises a brand-new entry point in Saudi Arabia for their connectivity requirements in the Kingdom and beyond.

Commenting on the event, Sultan Al-Deghaither, CEO of Zain KSA, said: “By investing in the J2M submarine cable, Zain reconfirms its commitment to the Kingdom’s digital-savvy consumer and business community by making available a robust, fault-tolerant international connectivity platform that will support the ambitious digital transformation objectives of Saudi Vision 2030, while contributing to position the Kingdom as a global ICT and digital services hub.”

According to the company, the PEACE cable system is a 15,000 kilometer-long, privately owned cable system that provides open, flexible and carrier-neutral services for its customers. It is designed with the latest 200G transmission and WSS ROADM BU technologies, which can transmit over 16Tbps per fiber pair servicing growing regional capacity needs.

The PEACE cable system substantially reduces network latency by adopting the shortest direct route connectivity, providing cost-effective capacity in an economically growing region and enhancing route diversity between Asia, Africa and Europe.