The Medusa cable is more than 8,700 km long. It was initially planned to connect Morocco, Portugal, Spain, France, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Egypt.
The Libyan United International Company (LUIC), a consortium formed by several Libyan private sector companies working in the field of communications, signed an agreement with Medusa Submarine Cable System last week. This involves connecting Libya to the Medusa submarine fiber optic cable which connects Mediterranean countries.
It is a system more than 8,700 km long and made up of 24 pairs of fibers for a total capacity of 480 terabits. It was initially planned to connect Morocco, Portugal, Spain, France, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Egypt. Worth 342 million euros, the infrastructure is financed by AFR-IX Telecom, Orange and the European Union. While work began in July, its implementation is planned between 2025 and early 2026, with an estimated lifespan of 25 years.
This partnership agreement can be part of the actions undertaken since 2021 by the government and the private sector for the revival of the national telecommunications sector long undermined by the local socio-political context. The Libyan Post, Telecommunications and Information Technologies Company (LPTIC) signed a partnership agreement with the American company Cisco in October 2022. In 2021, the public company had already signed a service agreement with the Italian-Libyan company Retelit Med and explored avenues of cooperation with China, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Once commissioned, the Medusa cable is expected to not only improve the quality and coverage of broadband Internet services in Libya, but also reduce the costs of these services. This will reach millions more people and meet ever-growing demand.
According to statistics from data platform DataReportal, Libya had 3.14 million internet users at the start of 2023. This represents a penetration rate of 45.9%.