Casablanca, Morocco

Casablanca, Morocco: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Casablanca sits on Morocco's Atlantic coast in the central-western part of the country and serves as the nation's largest city and primary economic centre. As a submarine cable landing point, it hosts two international systems that together connect Morocco to destinations across West Africa, South America, and Western Europe. Both cables reached ready-for-service status in 2021, making Casablanca a relatively recently activated landing point that nonetheless carries a geographically diverse set of connections.

The two cables landing at Casablanca — Maroc Telecom West Africa and EllaLink — represent two distinct corridor types. The former anchors a regional West African route running southward along the Atlantic coast of the African continent, while the latter spans the South Atlantic to connect Europe with South America via several intermediate territories. Together, they position Casablanca as a node where intra-African regional connectivity and transatlantic long-distance connectivity converge.

Cables Landing at Casablanca, Morocco

Maroc Telecom West Africa is an 8,600 km submarine cable system that reached ready-for-service status in 2021. In addition to Morocco, the cable connects Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, and Togo, linking Casablanca into a corridor that runs along the western coast of Africa and serves multiple Gulf of Guinea nations. Its length reflects the substantial southward reach of the system across several West African coastal states.

EllaLink is a 6,200 km submarine cable system that also entered service in 2021. It connects Brazil, Cape Verde, French Guiana, Mauritania, and Portugal in addition to Morocco, establishing a direct South Atlantic route between Europe and South America. Casablanca functions as one of the African touchpoints on this transatlantic system, alongside Mauritania to the south and with onward connectivity into Portugal and the broader European network.

Regional Context

Morocco's submarine cable infrastructure spans five landing points, hosting six cables in total across the country. Casablanca shares the position of having two cables with Asilah and Tétouan, while Dakhla and Nador each host a single cable. Casablanca is therefore among the better-connected landing points within Morocco by cable count, on par with the country's other two-cable locations.

Network Role

Casablanca operates as a dual-corridor landing point, simultaneously terminating a West African coastal system and a transatlantic cable that bridges South America with Europe. This combination means the landing point enables connectivity in two directions at once: southward into multiple West African economies via Maroc Telecom West Africa, and westward and northward across the Atlantic via EllaLink. With both cables having entered service in the same year, the landing point's international capacity was established in a single concentrated period.

Within the regional submarine cable graph, Casablanca's position — linking West Africa, South America, Europe, and intermediate Atlantic island territories through just two systems — makes it a geographically broad node relative to its modest cable count, connecting more distinct world regions per cable than most landing points of comparable scale.