Consortium announces four new Branches for 2Africa submarine cable system

The consortium behind the 2Africa submarine network claims it is the largest such project in the world.

The 2Africa consortium, which comprises China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC, have announced plans to add four branches to the 2Africa submarine cable. The branches will add connectivity to the Seychelles, the Comoros Islands, and Angola, as well as a new landing to southeast Nigeria. The new branches are in addition to a recently announced extension to the Canary Islands.

Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) will deploy the new branches, which will increase the number of 2Africa landings to 35 in 26 countries. As with the other 2Africa cable landings, capacity will be available to service providers at carrier-neutral data centers or open-access cable landing stations (see '2Africa submarine cable to connect 23 countries in Europe, Africa, Middle East ').

The consortium touts the 2Africa effort as the largest submarine cable project in the world. Work on the submarine network began in 2020, and the undersea system is expected to be ready for service in late 2023. Most of the undersea route survey work has been completed, and ASN has begun manufacturing the cable and building repeater units in its factories in Calais and Greenwich. Wet plant deployment is expected to begin in 2022.

The project also has terrestrial components. The Egypt terrestrial route that interconnects landing sites on the Red and the Mediterranean Seas via two completely diverse land routes has been completed ahead of schedule. A third diverse marine path will complement this segment via the Red Sea.

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https://www.lightwaveonline.com/network-design/high-speed-networks/article/14208835/consortium-announces-four-new-branches-for-2africa-submarine-cable-system