According to DCD, the Medusa subsea cable has successfully landed in Bizerte, Tunisia, marking its second landing point after Marseille, France. The initial segment connecting Marseille with Bizerte and Nador, Morocco is scheduled for completion between late October and December, with the full system expected to go live in early 2026. Orange serves as the landing partner in both France and Tunisia, while Tunisie Telecom partners on the France-Tunisia branch. The €342 million project, funded by AFR-IX Telecom, Orange, and the European Union through the Connecting Europe Facility program, will eventually span 8,700km with 19 landing sites across Europe and North Africa, featuring segments with up to 24 fiber pairs each offering 20Tbps capacity. This ambitious infrastructure project represents a significant bet on Mediterranean connectivity.
The Geopolitical Minefield Ahead
While the technical specifications are impressive, Medusa’s planned route through politically volatile regions raises serious questions about long-term viability. The cable’s expansion plans include Libya and Syria—both countries experiencing ongoing conflict and political instability. Subsea cables require stable governance for maintenance, security, and uninterrupted operation. The European Union’s significant investment through the Connecting Europe Facility suggests this is as much a geopolitical strategy as a commercial venture, aiming to create digital dependencies that could influence regional power dynamics. Historically, cables in unstable regions have faced repeated service disruptions, from deliberate sabotage to accidental damage during conflicts.
Capacity Claims Versus Market Realities
The promised 20Tbps per fiber pair sounds impressive, but the Mediterranean region’s ability to absorb this capacity remains uncertain. Many existing cables in the region operate well below their theoretical maximums due to limited demand and infrastructure constraints at landing stations. The AFR-IX Telecom expansion strategy appears ambitious, with planned extensions to West Africa potentially creating a glut of capacity that could depress prices and undermine the business case. Furthermore, the timeline from initial announcement in 2022 to projected 2026 completion represents a significant window during which competing technologies like satellite constellations could capture market share.
West African Extension: Ambition Meets Reality
The planned extension down Africa’s west coast faces even greater challenges. The €14.3 million EU funding for this expansion represents only a fraction of what’s needed for such ambitious infrastructure. Landing agreements in Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, while strategically valuable, come with their own political complexities and infrastructure limitations. Many West African nations lack the terrestrial networks to fully utilize submarine cable capacity, creating a “last mile” problem that has plagued previous cable projects in the region. The Orange partnership brings valuable experience, but scaling across multiple jurisdictions with varying regulatory environments presents operational headaches that could delay or diminish the project’s impact.
Crowded Waters and Future Proofing
The Mediterranean is already dense with submarine cables, and Medusa enters a competitive market where pricing pressure continues to intensify. While the 24 fiber pair design offers future-proofing, the technology landscape evolves rapidly—what seems cutting-edge in 2026 may be standard or even outdated by the time the cable reaches full deployment. The project’s success will depend not just on construction but on developing the ecosystem around it, including data centers, cloud connectivity, and local partnerships that can drive actual usage rather than just theoretical capacity.
