The declaration marks the completion of a construction programme that took the segment from marine survey and factory acceptance testing through cable laying, shore landings and final splicing. Marine operations were carried out by Orange Marine’s Sophie Germain and Elettra TLC’s Teliri cableships, with Elettra TLC coordinating works and Alcatel Submarine Networks delivering system design and equipment.

Designed as an open, point-to-point system with a 25-year design life, ViaTunisia was co-financed by the European Union under the Connecting Europe Facility Digital programme. A grant agreement signed in December 2022 provided funding covering 30 per cent of construction and management costs.

On the European side, the segment connects directly into Orange’s global infrastructure in Marseille via a fully redundant urban fibre ring linking the city’s data centres, enabling onward distribution of international capacity across the continent.

Marseille’s established position as a major interconnection hub underpins the route’s strategic value for traffic moving between North Africa and the wider internet.

The system also adds resilience to a corridor that operators have long identified as vulnerable. By multiplying route options across the central Mediterranean, ViaTunisia reduces dependence on existing cables and limits exposure to outages in a region that includes areas prone to natural disruption.

The RFS milestone transitions the segment from construction into full operational availability, with the route now able to carry live traffic. The cable forms part of the Medusa system, which spans multiple Mediterranean landing points across Europe and North Africa.

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