At 37,000 km long, 2Africa will be one of the world’s largest submarine cable projects, interconnecting Europe (eastward via Egypt), the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia), and 21 landing stations in 16 African countries. The system is expected to be operational by 2023/24, offering more than the combined total capacity of all submarine cables deployed in Africa today, with a design capacity of up to 180 Tbps in key parts of the system. 2Africa will deliver much-needed internet capacity and reliability across much of Africa, complement the rapidly growing capacity demand in the Middle East, and support further growth of 4G, 5G, and fixed broadband access for hundreds of millions of people.
In the countries where the 2Africa cable will land, service providers will receive capacity in carrier-neutral data centers or open-access cable landing stations on a fair and equitable basis. This will support the healthy development of the Internet ecosystem by facilitating improved accessibility for businesses and consumers alike.
The 2Africa cable has been designed to improve resilience and maximize performance, including the option of a continuous optical cross-link between East Africa and Europe. The 2Africa and Airtel parties have signed an agreement with Telecom Egypt to provide a completely new cross-link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the first in over a decade. This includes new cable landing stations and the deployment of next-generation fiber on two new and diverse terrestrial routes parallel to the Suez Canal from Ras Ghareb to Port Said, and a new submarine link that will provide a third path between Ras Ghareb and Suez.
The 2Africa cable will implement a new technology, ASN's SDM1, which allows the deployment of up to 16 fiber pairs instead of the eight pairs supported by older technologies, providing significantly greater capacity and greater cost-effectiveness. The cable will incorporate optical switching technology to enable flexible bandwidth management. The cable's burial depth has also been increased by 50% compared to older systems, and the cable routing will avoid locations prone to known underwater disturbances, all of which will help ensure the highest levels of availability.
