Orange Wholesale has activated the ViaTunisia segment of the Medusa submarine cable system, creating a new direct fiber route between Marseille, France and Bizerte, Tunisia. The new link strengthens connectivity between Europe and North Africa while expanding access to Marseille’s growing role as a major digital interconnection hub for the Mediterranean region.
The ViaTunisia segment is part of the broader Medusa subsea cable initiative and received co-financing from the European Union. Orange said the route is designed to address increasing demand for international bandwidth, improve resilience for data traffic, and provide additional routing diversity across a strategically important region. The project aims to enhance network reliability and continuity during outages, disruptions, or other unforeseen events.
Orange credited teams from Orange Wholesale, Orange Marine, and Elettra TLC for completing the deployment. The company continues to invest in diversified subsea and terrestrial infrastructure as operators, cloud providers, and enterprises seek more resilient international connectivity to support digital services, cloud applications, and AI-driven workloads.
- ViaTunisia segment now operational between Marseille and Bizerte.
- Part of the larger Medusa submarine cable system.
- Creates a direct route linking Europe and North Africa.
- Enhances access to Marseille’s digital ecosystem and interconnection facilities.
- Co-financed by the European Union.
- Designed to improve network resilience, security, and routing diversity.
- Supports growing bandwidth demand and regional digital transformation initiatives.
- Built with contributions from Orange Wholesale, Orange Marine, and Elettra TLC.
“Our goal: continue expanding and diversifying our infrastructure to ensure robust, uninterrupted, and reliable connectivity, even in times of crisis or unforeseen events, to support global digital growth,” said Michael Trabbia, CEO of Orange Wholesale.
🌐 Analysis: The activation of ViaTunisia highlights the growing importance of Mediterranean connectivity as Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East experience rapid growth in cloud computing, content delivery, AI infrastructure, and digital services. Marseille has emerged as one of Europe’s most important subsea cable hubs, attracting major investments from hyperscalers, carriers, and data center operators.
The deployment also reflects a broader industry trend toward increasing route diversity and resilience in submarine cable networks. Operators including Orange, Google, Meta, Telecom Egypt, Sparkle, and others continue to expand Mediterranean and Red Sea connectivity to reduce single points of failure and support rising international traffic demand.
