TO AFRICA AND BEYOND

There are plans for a new, massive undersea cable to go live in 2023 or 2024. Named 2Africa, among others it’s being built by Facebook, MTN, Vodafone, China Mobile and Orange. At 37 000 km long, 2Africa is one of the largest subsea projects in the world, aimed at connecting 23 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. It will interconnect Europe (eastward via Egypt), the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia), and have 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa. What’s interesting is that 2Africa will be submerged 50 per cent deeper than existing cables, which will hopefully mean fewer internet disruptions of its services.