The 2Africa subsea cable that’s expected to boost Africa’s connectivity has finally arrived in Cape Town, South Africa. Once laid out around Africa, the spun-out 45 000km cable will connect the western and eastern parts of Africa. It’s expected that the project will officially go live in 2023.
The high-tech cable is designed to have 180Tbit/s capacity on “key parts of the system”. MTN says it’s expected to deliver reliable internet capacity and improved internet performance across Africa.
A brand new wave of connectivity has landed! MTN GlobalConnect, in partnership with 2Africa consortium, has landed a 45 000km 2Africa subsea cable in Western Cape, South Africa, to strengthen internet connectivity in Africa.
Read more: https://t.co/cVRp7whzFb#DoingGoodTogether— MTN Group (@MTNGroup) December 13, 2022
It’s deployed by the 2Africa consortium which includes Facebook’s parent company, Meta, and a range of big telecom companies including MTN GlobalConnect, Vodafone Group, Centre3, Orange, China Mobile International, and West Indian Ocean Cable Company.
Last year, Vodacom described it as “one of the largest subsea projects in the world, connecting 23 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
Read More: Facebook’s 2Africa to become longest subsea internet cable system
“Strategic partnerships such as the one we have with the 2Africa consortium will help us accelerate and deepen Internet adoption and socioeconomic progress across the African continent,” says MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita.
MTN says the subsea cable landing in Yzerfontein and Duynefontein, north of Cape Town, is one of several cable landings taking place across 46 locations in 33 countries.
The landing in Yzerfontein is expected to support the West cable and the MTN South Africa Duynefontein part is expected to support the East cable in 2023 and 2024 respectively. This week’s landing in South Africa is the first of six landings for MTN Global Connect in five countries including Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Sudan.
“This subsea cable will lay the foundation for improved global Internet access, connecting people and continents. Once live, it will play a big part in delivering much-needed capacity in Africa from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia,” says MTN GlobalConnect.
Mupita says data traffic across African markets is expected to grow between four and five-fold over the next five years. “So we need infrastructure and capacity to meet that level of growth and demand,” says Mupita.
In a statement, MTN said: “South African service providers can acquire capacity in carrier-neutral data centres or open-access cable landing stations on a fair and equitable basis. This will support the development of a healthy Internet ecosystem by facilitating improved Internet accessibility for businesses and consumers alike.”
MTN said the cable landing adds another milestone to the digital railroads it is building around Africa to make telecommunications accessible and available.