China Mobile International Corp, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, STC, Egypt Telecom, Vodafone and WIOCC have announced a partnership to build 2Africa, the most comprehensive undersea fiber optic cable serving the African continent and the Middle East, and will also connect through East Africa and other undersea cables to expand connectivity with Asia.Wires and cables
The developer has awarded Alcatel Subsea Network the contract to build the cable to greatly enhance connectivity throughout Africa and the Middle East.
2Africa is 37,000 km long and will connect Europe (east via Egypt), the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia) and 21 landing sites in 16 African countries, according to the report. 2Africa will provide much-needed Internet capacity and reliability across much of Africa, complement the rapidly growing capacity demand in the Middle East, and support further growth in 5G and fixed broadband access.
In countries where the 2Africa cable will land, service providers will have access to operator neutral data center or open access cable landing station capacity on a fair and impartial basis. This will support the development of a healthy Internet ecosystem by greatly enhancing the accessibility of businesses and consumers.Wires and cables
2Africa Cable will implement a new technology, ASN SDM1, which will enable the deployment of up to 16 pairs of optical fibres instead of the eight pairs supported by earlier technologies, resulting in greater and more cost-effective capacity. The cable will adopt optical switching technology to achieve flexible bandwidth management. The cable burial depth is also 50% higher than in older systems, and cabling will avoid known locations of seabed interference, all of which helps ensure the highest level of availability.
The system is scheduled to enter service in April 2023 and will deliver more than the total capacity of all submarine cables serving Africa today, with key components designed to have a capacity of up to 180Tbps. Once completed, it will be one of the largest undersea cable projects in the world.Wires and cables