RCN (Regional Cable Network), New Terrestrial route connecting Middle East to Europe, goes live

Abu Dhabi, 17 May 2015

Telecom consortium establishes a high-capacity terrestrial fiber network from Fujairah (UAE) to Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), and Amman (Jordan).

RCN (Regional Cable Network), a consortium between Etisalat UAE, Zain Jordan, Turkcell Superonline Turkey, Mobily Saudi Arabia, Orange Jordan and Syrian Telecom Syria announced the commercial launch of a high-capacity terrestrial fibre network that will run from Fujairah to Riyadh and then to Amman during the initial phase.

The RCN consortium was established in December 2010 to terrestrially link the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey with the installation of Add/Drop Terminal Stations at Fujairah and Istanbul, and Add/Drop Intermediate Stations in Riyadh, Amman and Tartous.

In its first phase, to maintain a high level of stability and resilience and due to the prevailing security conditions in Syria, the RCN cable system extending from Fujairah to Amman has been rolled out and is ready for commercial service. The length of the activated RCN today is currently 5,000km and can offer up to 1.2 Tbps in multiples of 10G Ethernet. The consortium will extend the RCN to Turkey in the future as the socio-political climate in Syria stabilizes.

Commenting on the commercial launch of the first phase of the RCN network, Ali Amiri, Chairman of the consortium and Executive Vice President Carrier & Wholesale at Etisalat UAE, "The development and launch of this fiber-optic cable is of great significance to the region as it avails additional network capacity to the region. It supports the highest levels of redundancy and availability and helping support the incredible rise in demand for data access across the region", Amiri added. "The RCN consortium also sets a fantastic example of multi-country and multi-operator cooperation, which I believe will become more necessary in the future as telcos look to maintain their relevance and appeal in a rapidly evolving sector."