Vodafone, telco giants add four new links to 2Africa project
The firm rolling out the largest subsea cable project in the world, 2Africa consortium, has announced the addition of four new branches in their internet connectivity link.
The branches will extend 2Africa’s connectivity to the Seychelles, the Comoros Islands, and Angola, and bring a new landing to south-east Nigeria.
The new branches join the recently announced extension to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa.
2Africa consortium brings together Vodafone, social media heavyweight Facebook, China Mobile International, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, Riyadh headquartered stc, Telecom Egypt, and Mauritius based West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC).
At 37,000km long, 2Africa will be the world’s largest subsea cable investment and will connect Europe, the Middle East, and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa including Kenya.
The 2Africa subsea cable project is billed to deliver faster, and more reliable internet services to each country it connects.
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Communities that rely on the internet for services from education to healthcare, and business will experience the economic and social rewards that come from robust connectivity.
Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has been selected to deploy the new branches, which will push up the number of 2Africa landings to 35 in 26 countries, further improving connectivity into and around Africa.
As with other 2Africa cable landings, capacity will be available to service providers at carrier-neutral data centres or open-access cable landing stations on a fair and equitable basis, encouraging and supporting the development of a healthy internet ecosystem.
Since launching the 2Africa cable in May last year, the 2Africa consortium has made considerable progress in planning and preparing for the deployment of the cable, which is expected to ‘go live’ at the end of 2023.
Most of the subsea route survey activity is now complete. ASN has started manufacturing the cable and building repeater units in its factories in Calais and Greenwich in Europe as it readies to deploy the first segments next year.
One of 2Africa’s key segments, the Egypt terrestrial crossing, that interconnects landing sites on the Red and the Mediterranean Seas via two diverse terrestrial routes has been completed ahead of schedule.
A third diverse the marine path will complement this segment via the Red Sea.
