Interconnectivity: Facebook, Telcos Set to Connect Africa, Middle East, Europe With $1b Subsea Cable

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Facebook and a team of African and global telecom majors have revealed plans are in high gear to build one of the world’s largest subsea cable networks to boost internet availability across three continents.

The Telcos; South Africa’s MTN GlobalConnect and Mauritius-based infrastructure provider WIOCC are partners in the project, along with China Mobile International, French telecoms major Orange SA, Saudi Arabia’s STC, Telecom Egypt, and Vodafone they revealed in a joint statement.

The project, called 2Africa, aims to build 37,000 kilometers of subsea cable infrastructure which will directly connect countries around the African coast to Europe and the Middle East, according to its website.

The network will have a design capacity of up to 150 terabytes per second (Tbps) on key parts of the system, the site said. The 11 new cables rolled out between 2009 and 2016 in sub-Saharan Africa provided around 70 Tbps of design capacity.
Subsea infrastructure provider Alcatel Submarine Networks will build the project, which is expected to be operational by 2023/24, the statement said.

The companies did not reveal how much money they were investing.

“2Africa will interconnect Europe, the Middle East, and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa,” the partners said in the statement.

Subsea cables form the backbone of the internet, carrying 99% of the world’s data traffic.

Africa’s big economies have a large and fast-growing population of internet users, with growth in internet use fuelled by rapidly expanding mobile broadband networks and ever more affordable phones.

However, with a population of 1.3 billion, Africa is still a laggard in internet connectivity, with average internet penetration at around 39% against a world average of 59%.

On completion the subsea network will deliver more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables serving Africa today, the firms said in the statement.

“Improving connectivity for Africa is a significant step which lays the groundwork for increased digitalization across the continent,” said Vodacom International Business Chief Officer Diego Gutierrez.
Vodacom, which is majority owned by Britain’s Vodafone, is South Africa’s second-biggest telecom player.

Babajide Okeowo
Babajide Okeowohttps://newdiplomatng.com/
With a career spanning over a decade spent across the Business, Political and Entertainment beats of prominent media organizations in Nigeria, Babajide Okeowo has carved a niche for himself as a Journalist of repute. As a newsroom guru, he has penned several weighty narratives and designed content that speak to a news medium's values, vision and mission while ensuring that the content resonate pretty well with a variety of critical audiences across Nigeria and beyond. A consummate storyteller whose coverage of the business industry is valuable, Okeowo is blessed with a vast analytical mind and data interpretation skills. In his spare time, he interprets data for a Leading American University while also volunteering for a Non-Governmental Organization on Mindset Transformation. Okeowo is the Content Editor of The New Diplomat.

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