Med-1 will start operating its new submarine telecommunications cable between Israel and Sicily on January 20, with an initial capacity of five gigabit. The cable’s maximum capacity is 20 gigabit, and upgrading can be carried out, as needed, at the terminal stations, without touching the cable itself.
The 2,250 km cable connects Tel Aviv with Yeroskypos in Cyprus, and Mazara in Sicily. From these points, the cable will be linked up to international cables around the world. Marketing of the cable’s capacity began over a year ago, and the entrepreneurs expressed great satisfaction with the demand for its services.
Telecommunications companies like Cable & Wireless, AT&T, the international telecommunications operators in Israel, and telephone companies from Italy, Switzerland, and Cyprus, have signed agreements worth tens of millions of dollars. The cable is named after Gidon Lev, who was director-general of the Ministry of Communications, and devised the project and managed it in its initial stages. Lev died eighteen months ago.
Three national telephone companies are currently partners in the project: Bezeq of Israel (21.25%); Telecom Italia ((18.25%), and CYTA of Cyprus (7.25%). Other partners in the cable are Israeli companies Clalcom(18.25%), Globescom (8.25%), Aurec (8.25%), Telrad Holdings (9.25%), and Kama Communications (9.25%).
Globescom is a sister company to "Globes".
Published by Israel's Business Arena on December 21, 1998