The infrastructure and telecommunications operator AFR-IX Telecom has closed the first two international contracts to launch the Barcelona Cable Landing Station, a submarine telecommunications cable landing station, at the end of this year, which it is building next to the coast of Sant Adrià del Besòs. The agreements for the use of the innovative fiber optic cable node, in an advanced stage of negotiation, have been established internationally with a consortium of several telecommunications operators and with an infrastructure manager.
The Catalan company will also bring the Medusa cable to this facility in July 2024: a new submarine communication infrastructure that AFR-IX itself will build in the Mediterranean to connect nine countries in Africa and Europe (from Lisbon to Egypt).
Eight million euros have been invested in the Barcelona CLS station, a project that AFR-IX has been working on for more than four years, two more than initially planned because "we have redesigned this connection node to have more cable capacity in the future," explains Miguel Ángel Acero, telecommunications engineer, founder and co-owner of the company. The international open port landing station will reinforce Barcelona's position as a technological hub in southern Europe.
The infrastructure of the first international submarine cable landing station built in Catalonia has been designed as a neutral connection point, where AFR-IX, owner of the facility, will operate as an independent manager that grants the concession of use to telecommunications system operators on a rental basis. This formula, in which "the station operator is neutral, completely oblivious to everything that happens, and all it does is build and operate the infrastructure so that those who rent or contract it can do their business, is a much more attractive and innovative model within the field of telecommunications and facilitates free competition among large operators," emphasizes Acero.
With these characteristics, its location, and its capacity, Barcelona CLS is shaping up as the best alternative to other options such as the one the new Genoa station wants to offer, "to decongest the traffic that passes through the Marseille node," states Acero. The French station currently serves 10 submarine cables and 12 more are in the process of requesting landing permits, "which will create a considerable bottleneck at that connection point, and therefore it is very appropriate and timely to have the Barcelona alternative," he adds.
The third cable to land in Barcelona will be Medusa. A new submarine communication infrastructure that aims to be a benchmark in the Mediterranean and whose construction will also be carried out by AFR-IX. Therefore, it is projected with the same spirit: neutral character, open and independent access.
With an investment of 326 million euros, Medusa will be the longest fiber optic submarine cable in the Mediterranean, about 8,700 kilometers long, connecting nine countries in Africa and Europe, through landing points in Portugal, Morocco, Spain, France, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, Greece, and Egypt. Construction is expected to begin in late 2023 in Lisbon and finish two years later in Egypt. The first section of this infrastructure, which will be manufactured by Alcatel Submarine Networks, part of the Nokia group, will begin operating in 2024 and will connect Lisbon with Barcelona and Marseille.
Stock Market Listing this year
The firm AFR-IX, owned by its two founders, Norman Albi and Miguel Ángel Acero, is preparing to go public before the summer of this year. Until now, it has been financed with its own and financial resources. Norman Albi, CEO, has specified that they have carried out the corresponding audit processes and that the stock market listing will be done through listing ---a formula that allows the company to directly request access to stock market trading without the need to launch a public offering of sale---, although they are still considering which markets are most suitable for operation.
The Barcelona-based company closed the last fiscal year (in June 2021) with a turnover of 23 million euros and a workforce of 110 employees. Most of the employees, about 75, have responsibilities on the African continent. The reason is that AFR-IX, created in 2013, has positioned itself in these nine years as one of the main data connectivity operators focused on the African market. Thanks to its expansion, it manages 50 technical nodes across the African continent, covering 80% of all African countries, to guarantee direct connectivity with Europe.
The company's future involves, among other objectives, becoming an international fiber optic connectivity infrastructure operator specializing in the management of submarine cable landing stations to guarantee their neutrality.