SUBCO announced that it is ready to begin construction on a new transcontinental submarine cable that will connect Sydney, Melbourne (Torquay), Adelaide and Perth (S-M-A-P), with the project having officially achieved Contract in Force (CIF) status.

center3, a wholly owned subsidiary of stc Group, has selected Ciena's cutting-edge solutions and technologies for its fiber pairs on the 2Africa cable system, which lands in Saudi Arabia at Jeddah and Yanbu, provides reliable, high-bandwidth connectivity onward to three continents. With Ciena’s 800G technology, center3 can serve both regional and international digital needs with advanced communication, cloud, and data center hosting services.

Aqua Comms announced that it has activated the AEC-3 transatlantic subsea cable system leveraging native colocation and connectivity services at the CoreSite Boston data center campus (BO1),  offering direct connections between Boston and Europe. 

According to the Maldives news, the India-Asia Express (IAX) landed in Hulhumalé on Friday, August 11. Ocean Connectivity Maldives (OCM) held a landing ceremony in Hulhumale Friday afternoon. OCM is expected to invest more than $22.5 million in the IAX submarine cable project.

According to the Angolan News Agency (ANGOP), the 2África subsea cable landed on the Cacuaco Beach in Luanda, Angola on Sunday, July 30. Unitel, the Angolan mobile operator, acts as the landing parnter and is the only Angolan operator that joined the 2Africa consortium.

Aqua Comms, Meta, Microsoft, and Vodafone announced the completion of the Amitié subsea cable system, the first to directly connect Boston to Europe and Bordeaux to North America. Amitié has been fully commissioned and tested and was handed over to Aqua Comms, Meta, Microsoft, and Vodafone on July 16, 2023.

Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), Elettra Tlc, Medusa and Orange announced the coming into force of the construction contract for the Medusa Submarine Cable System. This milestone marks the start of an ambitious project that will boost connectivity across the Mediterranean.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued the recommendations on ‘Licensing Framework and Regulatory Mechanism for Submarine Cable Landing in India’.

Paratus has lit up the Equiano subsea cable system in Namibia. The Equiano cable system brings significantly more capacity to businesses and residences in Namibia.  Paratus has radically rationalised and simplified its product and package options to make it easier for customers to choose their ideal solution.

Sparkle announced Wednesday that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Libya Postal Telecommunication and Technology Holding Company (LPTIC), the Libyan state-owned telecom company operating in fixed, mobile and data telco services, concerning the building of a new submarine infrastructure connecting multiple landings in Libya to Sicily, and via Italy to Europe through Sparkle’s new BlueMed Submarine Cable (“BlueMed”). 

Japan announced Tuesday that it joined the United States and Australia in signing an agreement on a $95 million undersea cable project that will connect East Micronesia island nations to improve networks in the Indo-Pacific region where China is increasingly expanding its influence.

NEC Corporation (NEC) announced the signing of supply contract with FSM Telecommunications Cable Corporation (FSMTCC), based in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), BwebwerikiNet Limited (BNL) of the Republic of Kiribati, and Nauru Fibre Cable Corporation (NFCC) of the Republic of Nauru for construction, supply and installation of the East Micronesia Cable System (EMCS), which will connect four islands amongst FSM (Pohnpei and Kosrae), Kiribati (Tarawa) and Nauru with a total length of approximately 2,250km and a large-capacity optical fibre submarine cable. The EMCS project is funded by the Governments of Australia, Japan and the United States.

center3 announced the landing of the 2Africa subsea cable in Jeddah and Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. center3 is a newly formed subsidiary of stc,  being the result of stc Group’s vision that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be the heart of all international data connectivity crossing and connecting three continents (Europe, Asia and Africa) and a data center hub for the MENA region.

Liquid Dataport, a business of Liquid Intelligent Technologies (Liquid), a pan-African technology group, has launched its newest fibre route connecting Mombasa, Kenya, to Muanda on the west coast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). This is the shortest route connecting East to West Africa, reducing data transmission latency by 20 milliseconds. The much anticipated 3,800km route marks a new era in East-West connectivity on the continent, adding to Liquid’s One Africa Digital Network, which now spans 110,000 km.

The European Commission will provide a total amount of nearly €150 million in financial support to 38 projects to deploy safe, secure and sustainable high-performance 5G and digital backbone infrastructure. The projects have been selected among 60 projects submitted under calls for proposals under Connecting Europe Facility (CEF Digital), the funding programme supporting European digital infrastructure.

The EU Commission granted AFR-IX telecom’s ATMED-DG (Atlantic-Mediterranean Data Gateway) project €7,79 million to finance the deployment of a pair of dark fibre between Lisbon, Zahara de los Atunes, Barcelona, Marseille and Mazara del Vallo on its Medusa cable system, a 8,700km strategic project to improve connectivity between the countries of the European Union.