Internet connectivity will be expanded to the Seychelles,
the Comoros Islands, Angola, and bring a new landing point to south-east
Nigeria. This is in addition to the recently announced extension to the Canary
Islands, the companies said.
The consortium of the project, called 2Africa, comprises
South Africa's MTN GlobalConnect, Facebook, Mauritius-based infrastructure
provider WIOCC, China Mobile International, France's Orange SA, Saudi Arabia's
stc, Telecom Egypt, and Vodafone.
Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has been selected to deploy
the new "branches", which will increase the number of 2Africa
landings to 35 in 26 countries, further improving connectivity into and around
Africa, they added.
"Most of the subsea route survey activity is now
complete. ASN has started manufacturing the cable and building repeater units
in its factories in Calais and Greenwich to deploy the first segments in
2022," the companies said.
The consortium launched the cable, which is expected to go
live in late 2023, in May 2020 to connect those countries in Africa, the Middle
East and Europe.
Subsea cables form the backbone of the Internet, carrying 99
percent of the world's data traffic.
Africa's big economies have a large and fast growing
population of Internet users, with growth in internet use fuelled by rapidly
expanding mobile broadband networks and more affordable phones.
However, with a population of just above 1.3 billion, Africa
is still a laggard in Internet connectivity, with average mobile Internet users
at around 26 percent against a world average of 51 percent.
The companies said 2Africa will be the largest subsea cable
project in the world.
© Reuters