The 2Africa consortium of China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, STC, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC has announced the addition of four new branches to the cable. They will extend 2Africa’s connectivity to the Seychelles, the Comoros Islands, Angola, and a new landing in south-east Nigeria.
The new branches join the recently announced extension to the Canary Islands. Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has been selected to deploy the new branches, which will increase the number of 2Africa landings to 35 in 26 countries. The new 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.
Marine surveys have been completed for most of the cable, and cable manufacturing is under way. The 2Africa cable was launched in May 2020 and is expected to go live in late 2023. ASN has started producing the cable and building repeater units in its factories in Calais and Greenwich to deploy the first segments in 2022.
One key segment, the Egypt terrestrial crossing that links landing sites on the Red and the Mediterranean Seas by two completely diverse terrestrial routes, has been completed ahead of schedule. A third diverse marine path will complement this segment via the Red Sea.
