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JOHANNESBURG, May 14 (Reuters) - Facebook and a team
of African and global telecom majors have struck a deal to build
one of the world's largest subsea cable networks, boosting
internet availability across three continents, they said in a
joint statement on Thursday.
South Africa's MTN GlobalConnect and
Mauritius-based infrastructure provider WIOCC are partners in
the project, along with China Mobile International, French
telecoms major Orange SA, Saudi Arabia's stc, Telecom
Egypt, and Vodafone.
The project, called 2Africa, aims to build 37,000 kilometres
of subsea cable infrastructure which will directly connect
countries around the African coast to Europe and the Middle
East, according to its website.
The network will have a design capacity of up to 150
terabytes per second (Tbps) on key parts of the system, the site
said. The 11 new cables rolled out between 2009 and 2016 in
sub-Saharan Africa provided around 70 Tbps of design capacity.
Subsea infrastructure provider Alcatel Submarine Networks
will build the project, which is expected to be operational by
2023/24, the statement said. The companies did not reveal how
much money they were investing.
"2Africa... will interconnect Europe, the Middle East, and
21 landings in 16 countries in Africa," the partners said in the
statement.
Subsea cables form the backbone of the internet, carrying
99% 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 ever
more affordable phones.
However, with a population of 1.3 billion, Africa is still a
laggard in internet connectivity, with average internet
penetration at around 39% against a world average of 59%.
On completion the subsea network will deliver more than the
total combined capacity of all subsea cables serving Africa
today, the firms said in the statement.
"Improving connectivity for Africa is a significant step
which lays the groundwork for increased digitalisation across
the continent," said Vodacom International Business Chief
Officer Diego Gutierrez.
Vodacom, which is majority owned by Britain's Vodafone, is
South Africa's second biggest telecom player.
(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Promit Mukherjee and
Jan Harvey)
