Facebook Expands 2Africa World’s Largest Submarine Cable Project To 35 Countries

With the currently largest submarine cable project in the world according to Facebook, the group wants to expand the 2Africa Internet project with the help of several telecommunications partners. It is now planned to supply 35 countries instead of the previous 26.

This emerges from a joint declaration by Facebook and the project partners. The consortium consists of Vodafone, Orange, and China Mobile International, among others. Together with Facebook, these providers now want to expand the 2Africa submarine cable project and expand Internet connectivity to Seychelles, the Comoros, and Angola. In addition, a new dock is planned in southeast Nigeria. This is in addition to the recently announced expansion to the Canary Islands, the companies said.

Expansion can start earlier than planned – big growth market

According to Reuters news, the addition of the four additional countries means that a total of 35 instead of the initially planned 26 African countries will be supplied with the underwater cable project. The construction project in Africa can be expanded earlier than planned, the consortium said in a joint statement.

Manufacture of the cable is in progress

Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has been selected to set up the new branches. “Most of the survey work for the subsea route is now complete. ASN has begun manufacturing the cable and building repeater units at its Calais and Greenwich factories with the first segments operational in 2022,” he said the companies. According to the companies, 2Africa will be the largest subsea cable project in the world.

However, with a population of just over 1.3 billion people, Africa is still a laggard when it comes to internet connectivity, with an average mobile internet user rate of around 26 percent versus a global average of 51 percent. The consortium started the major project, which is expected to go into operation at the end of 2023, in May 2020 to connect Africa with the Middle East and Europe.