CAIRO, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Egypt and Jordan signed on Thursday an agreement to establish a joint submarine optical fiber cable linking the Jordanian city of Aqaba and the Egyptian city of Taba, according to a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.
The deal, dubbed "Coral Bridge," was signed between Telecom Egypt, Egypt's first integrated telecommunications operator, and NaiTel, a telecommunications service provider in Jordan and the communication arm of the Aqaba Digital Hub.
The statement said that the cable will serve as a vital communication link between the two countries by establishing a robust digital infrastructure.
The new submarine cable, designed with the highest technical specifications, enjoys unique competitive advantages thanks to the short distance between the two landing points and its containment of a large number of optical fibers to meet the growing demands of artificial intelligence applications, it added.
"It will enhance the geographical competitive advantages of Egypt, as a key international transit point between the east and west, and Jordan as a primary transit point for the Levant, Iraq, and Gulf states, serving as a secondary convergence point between Asia and Europe," said the statement.
Egypt's Minister of Communication and Information Technology Amr Talaat and Jordan's Ambassador to Egypt Amjad Adaileh attended the signing ceremony in Cairo.
Talaat said the new project serves Egypt's initiatives to promote its capabilities in the international digital infrastructure field as a regional data corridor, adding it will maximize Egypt's exceptional global geographical location as a prominent convergence point for submarine internet cables.
Adaileh hailed the fruitful cooperation between the two countries in the communication sector, saying that it reflects the two sides' keenness to achieve integration in vital fields.
