RCN reveals commercial launch of phase one

RCN reveals commercial launch of phase one

The RCN (regional cable network) consortium – comprising Etisalat, Zain Jordan, Turkcell Superonline, Mobily Saudi Arabia, Orange Jordan and Syrian Telecom – has launched phase one of the system between Fujairah, UAE, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Amman, Jordan.

Established in 2010 to link the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey to Europe via terrestrial cables, the RCN has not had a smooth ride given the ongoing security concerns in Syria. Phase one is now ready for commercial service and plans are in place to extend to Turkey once the political climate in Syria stabilises.

“The development and launch of this fibre-optic cable is of great significance to the region as it avails additional network capacity to the region,” said Ali Amiri, chairman of the consortium and EVP, carrier and wholesale at Etisalat.

“It supports the highest levels of redundancy and availability and helps support the incredible rise in demand for data access across the region.”

The activated RCN is 5,000km and offers up to 1.2Tbps in multiples of 10G Ethernet. It can allegedly guarantee that every site along the cable path is always accessible even if a network’s service is intermittent or interrupted.

 

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