Internet Cable To Encircle Africa

Facebook is teaming up with Johannesburg-based MTN Group, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, China Mobile and Orange SA. to build a 37,000km (23,000-mile) undersea cable to supply faster Internet to 16 countries in Africa. This web cable will almost triple Africa’s Internet capability. 

Once completed, the submarine cable will be among the longest of its kind, almost equal in length to the world’s circumference, and will connect 23 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

The 2Africa project is part of Facebook’s wider ambition to build an “open and inclusive Internet ecosystem” and “bring people online to a faster Internet”, according to a recent blog.

The project was also developed expressly to mitigate against the limitations of undersea cable networks. For example, damage to fibre optic cables, often caused by passing ships or harsh deep sea conditions, occur over 100 times each year, in some instances causing country-wide outages.

It is part of a long-running bid by Facebook to take its social media platform to Africa's young population. When it becomes ready for use in 2024, it will deliver three times the capacity of all current undersea cables serving Africa. "When completed, this new route will deliver much-needed Internet capacity, redundancy, and reliability across Africa, supplement a rapidly increasing demand for capacity in the Middle East, and support further growth of 4G, 5G, and broadband access for hundreds of millions of people," said Facebook in a blog.

Africa lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to Internet access, with four in 10 people across the continent having access to the web, compared with a global average of six in 10.

The continent represents huge opportunities for technology firms and businesses with its population of 1.3 billion.
The cost of the 2Africa project, which will connect Europe and the Middle East to the continent, has not been disclosed but Bloomberg reported it could be close to $1bn (£820m).

Undersea cables carry the vast majority of the world's inter-continental data. They can handle much more data and offer faster transmission at a lower cost compared with other methods. The cable, which will be built by Nokia Oyj's Alcatel Submarine Networks, will run along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
It will be buried deeper than previous systems for greater protection against external damage from things such as ships' anchors. The fibre-optic cables will have double the capacity of older ones, making use of Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM1) technology.

To ensure maximum redundancy and availability, the 2Africa cable has been designed to allow for a 50% increase in burial depth (now up to 3 meters) and will be routed in such a way as to avoid the most problematic subsea locations, which should limit the scope for breakages.

The project arrives at an opportune moment, according to Facebook, with the ongoing pandemic serving to highlight the critical importance of connection to both businesses and societies. “The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of connectivity as billions of people around the world rely on the internet to work, attend school and stay connected to those they care about,” said Facebook.

Facebook said it will “provide nearly three times the total network capacity of all the subsea cables serving Africa today.”
Facebook thinks that the 2Africa project will be made more efficient and durable using aluminum rather than copper, as this could help enhance network capacity.

This announcement further highlights the growing battle for a share of the potential Internet population in Africa and other emerging markets.

The cost of accessing the Internet in Africa is still relatively high compared when earning power is considered. In 2016, the United Nations has declared the Internet as a basic human right, but most all efforts for a massive adoption have been unsuccessful, so far.

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