The core infrastructure of 2Africa is now complete, marking a major milestone for the world’s longest open-access subsea cable system. As a landmark project, 2Africa sets a new benchmark for global connectivity, built on years of collaboration, engineering innovation, and a shared mission to link communities, drive economic growth, and accelerate digital transformation across Africa and beyond. With the Pearls extension set to go live in 2026, the full system will span 45,000 kilometers—surpassing the circumference of the Earth.
2Africa is the first cable to connect East and West Africa in a continuous system and link Africa to the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe.
With a current reach of 33 countries and still counting, it enables connectivity for 3 billion people across Africa, Europe, and Asia—more than 30% of the world’s population. As demand for high-speed internet grows, a consortium of global partners led by Meta, including Bayobab, center3, China Mobile International, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone Group, and WIOCC, have worked together to deliver new levels of connectivity at such scale.
2Africa Landing Points
Africa’s digital future depends on robust, scalable infrastructure built in partnership with local communities and stakeholders. Realizing this vision required close collaboration across both private and public sectors.
2Africa is expected to contribute up to USD 36.9 billion to Africa’s GDP within just the first two to three years of operation.
The cable’s arrival will boost job creation, entrepreneurship, and innovation hubs in connected regions. Evidence from previous cable landings shows that fast internet access increases employment rates, improves productivity, and supports shifts toward higher-skill occupations.
The deployment spanned 50 jurisdictions and nearly six years of work, relying on the active engagement of regulators and policymakers to navigate requirements and keep progress on track.
The consortium’s shared goal is to develop an open, inclusive network that fosters competition, supports innovation, and unlocks new opportunities for millions. This open-access model ensures that multiple service providers can leverage the infrastructure, accelerating digital transformation and AI adoption across the region.
New partners including Bharti Airtel and MainOne (an Equinix Company) collaborated on specific segments and data center integration, further expanding the cable’s impact and reach.
Engineering Innovation and Overcoming Challenges
The 2Africa subsea cable represents a major leap in subsea engineering, combining cutting-edge technology and resilient design to meet Africa’s growing digital demand.
- Transforming International Bandwidth: Offers technical capacity far beyond previous systems. On the West segment—from England to South Africa, landing in Senegal, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Gabon, Republic of Congo, DRC, and Angola—the cable supports 21 terabits per second (Tbps) per fiber pair across 8 fiber pairs, resulting in a total trunk capacity of up to 180 Tbps.
- Advanced SDM Technology: Deploys spatial division multiplexing (SDM), supporting up to 16 fiber pairs per cable, doubling the capacity of older systems.
- First 16-Fiber-Pair Subsea Cable Connecting Africa: Incorporates undersea optical wavelength switching for flexible bandwidth management to support AI, cloud, and high-bandwidth applications.
- Enhanced Durability and Network Resilience: Burial depth increased by 50% over previous systems, with the cable carefully routed to avoid seabed hazards, including seamounts and hot brine pools.
- Optimized Trunk Architecture: Built with two independent trunk powering architectures across the west, east, and Mediterranean segments. Its advanced branching unit switching maximizes trunk capacity and reliability by routing further offshore, avoiding hazards like the Congo Canyon turbidity currents.
- Infrastructure Protection: Engineered crossing solutions for over 60 oil and gas pipelines, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity across complex subsea environments.
- Construction Scale and Logistics: 35 offshore vessels were deployed, totaling nearly 32 years of vessel operations. Additional shore-end operations required locally mobilized inshore vessels for cable pulling, guarding, security, and dive support. Specialist equipment, including dive decompression chambers and shore-end burial tooling, were also imported and mobilized for remote locations.
