2Africa subsea cable to begin partial operations this September
Partial operation of one of the world’s largest submarine communication cables — 2Africa — will begin at the end of September.
The 2Africa cable is expected to be ready for service in London, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa by September 2025. Businessman Roderick Beck, who specializes in sourcing submarine and terrestrial data transmission networks, claims that the 2Africa network along Africa’s west coast should be fully operational by the end of this year.
The 2Africa cable is being laid by a consortium that includes China Mobile International, Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, Center3, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC.
The project was first announced in 2020. Its initial length was set at 37,000 km with 21 landing stations in 16 African countries. However, in September 2021 the consortium announced the 2Africa PEARLS extension, covering the Persian Gulf, India, and Pakistan, which pushed the system’s length beyond 45,000 km.
Map 2 Africa. Source: MyBroadband
The subsea backbone, with a design capacity of 180 Tbps and expanded to 50 landing stations, will fully encircle Africa and connect it to Europe (via Egypt) and Asia (via Saudi Arabia).
Price and quality are taken into account
Until 2025, 2Africa was considered the longest submarine cable in the world, until Meta Platforms announced its Waterworth project — a 50,000 km cable linking the U.S., India, Brazil, South Africa, and Oceania.
The cable route runs from Lisbon and London down Africa’s west coast to South Africa. In 2022, landings were made in Yzerfontein near Cape Town, then Mtunzini, Amanzimtoti, and the Coega SEZ in Gqeberha.
“2Africa is not as fast as ACE or WACS… but that is intentional. The cable’s route minimizes time spent in shallow waters — defined as 1,000 meters or less — to reduce the risk of damage from cargo or fishing vessels,” Beck noted.
He emphasized that 2Africa’s value proposition has three components: capacity priced at half the cost of ACE or WACS, physical diversity compared to older systems, and longer uptime reliability.
In addition, 2Africa is an open cable system, meaning that landing station owners manage their own terminal equipment. As a result, some countries may be ready for service now, while others will join later.
As we wrote, Meta, Microsoft expand South African investment despite sector slowdown
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