The Medusa subsea cable has made its first landing, connecting to France.

Announced this week, the Medusa cable landed in Marseille, France. The initial segment of Medusa will link Marseille with Bizerte (Tunisia) and Nador (Morocco), with landings expected between late October and December.

The system is set to go live in early 2026.

Orange is the landing partner in France.

More landings are planned throughout 2026. Once fully deployed, the 8,700km (5,405 miles) system will span 19 landing sites across Europe and North Africa.

The system will feature segments with up to 24 fiber pairs, each offering a capacity of 20Tbps.

Norman Albi, CEO of AFR-IX Telecom and Medusa, said: “By bringing Medusa to Marseille, one of Europe’s leading digital hubs, we are laying the foundation for a project that will transform communications between Europe and Africa. Medusa will act as a driver of economic growth for the region and a catalyst for knowledge exchange across the Mediterranean.”

Medusa is set to run from the Carcavelos area of Lisbon in Portugal through the Mediterranean to Port Said, Egypt, and Aqaba, Jordan.

First announced in 2022, the 24-fiber pair system is due to land in Spain, France, the Italian island of Sicily, Greece, and Cyprus. It is also due to land on Africa’s northern coast at multiple points across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya.

The €342 million project has been funded by AFR-IX Telecom, Orange, and the European Union. The cable is co-financed by the European Union through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) program, under the AFR-IX projects ATMED – DG and ATMED Nador – DG projects.

An extension down the West African coast is also planned. AFR-IX Telecom secured €14.3 million ($15.6m) in funds from the EU to expand the cable to West Africa earlier this year.

AFR-IX has previously signed a deal with ACE to land the Medusa cable in Port-Gentil, Gabon, and the company has mentioned a planned landing point in the Democratic Republic of Congo.