China Mobile teams up to build subsea cable for Africa, Middle East

China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, Stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC on Thursday announced that they will partner to build 2Africa, which will be the most comprehensive subsea cable to serve the continent and Middle East region.

The parties have appointed Alcatel Submarine Networks to build the cable in a fully funded project which will greatly enhance connectivity across Africa and the Middle East.

At a length of 37,000 kilometers, 2Africa will be one of the world's largest subsea cable projects and will interconnect Europe, eastward via Egypt, the Middle East via Saudi Arabia, and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa.

The system is expected to go live in 2023 or 2024, delivering more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables serving Africa today, with a design capacity of up to 180 terabytes per second on key parts of the system.

2Africa will deliver much-needed internet capacity and reliability across large parts of Africa, supplement the fast-growing capacity demand in the Middle East and underpin the further growth of 4G, 5G and fixed broadband access for hundreds of millions of people.

In countries where the 2Africa cable will land, service providers will obtain capacity in carrier-neutral data centers or open-access cable landing stations on a fair and equitable basis. This will support healthy internet ecosystem development by facilitating greatly improved accessibility for businesses and consumers alike.

“The launch of 2Africa enables us to offer our customers seamless connection between Africa and Europe, together with our SEA-ME-WE 5 and AAE-1 subsea cable resources to further extend to Asia, which is an important milestone of our global development strategy," Jessica Gu, director and chief technology officer of China Mobile International, said.

“The utmost capacity and faster transmission allows us to satisfy the needs of African nations today and in the future, reflecting our firm commitment to building a global digital life."

Najam Ahmad, the vice-president of network infrastructure at Facebook, said 2Africa is a major element of our ongoing investment in Africa to bring more people online to a faster internet.

“We've seen firsthand the positive impact of increased connectivity on communities, from education to healthcare," Ahmad said.

“We know that economies flourish when there is widely accessible internet for businesses. 2Africa is a key pillar supporting this tremendous internet expansion as part of Africa's surging digital economy."

According to Frédéric Schepens, CEO of MTN Group's wholesale operation, the initiative complements MTN GlobalConnect's terrestrial fiber strategy to connect African countries to each other and to the rest of the world.

“We are proud to be playing a key role in providing the benefits of a modern connected life – a core MTN belief," Schepens said.

Alioune Ndiaye, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, said, “As one of the world's leading multiservice telecommunications operators and present in 18 countries in Africa and the Middle East, it was natural for Orange to be part of the 2Africa project."

Ndiaye said the investment will complete their existing submarine and pan-African terrestrial infrastructures to provide access to international connectivity in a redundant fashion throughout the west coast of Africa.

The 2Africa cable has been designed to improve resilience and maximize performance, including the option of a seamless optical crossing between East Africa and Europe.

The 2Africa parties and Airtel have signed an agreement with Telecom Egypt to provide a completely new crossing linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the first in over a decade.

This includes new cable landing stations and deployment of next-generation fiber on two new, diverse terrestrial routes parallel to the Suez Canal from Ras Ghareb to Port Said, and a new subsea link that will provide a third path between Ras Ghareb and Suez.