2Africa is one of the largest subsea projects in the world, connecting 46 cable landing stations in 33 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, with a cable length of 45,000km.

When it was first announce in May 2020, 2Africa was 37,000 km in length, connecting 23 countries, including 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa. In August 2021, 2Africa added 4 branches to extend connectivity to the Seychelles, the Comoros Islands and Angola and bring a new landing to south-east Nigeria. Later in September 2021, 2Africa officially announced the extension of 2Africa Pearls, extending to the Gulf, Pakistan and India, connecting 46 cable landing stations in 33 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, with a cable length of 45,000km.

2Africa is now the longest subsea cable in the world, followed by SMW3 of 39,000km.

The 2Africa cable system implements a new technology, SDM1 from ASN, incorporating optical switching technology to enable flexible management of bandwidth. Cable burial depth has also been increased by 50% compared to older systems, and cable routing will avoid locations of known subsea disturbance, all helping to ensure the highest levels of availability.

2Africa will be the first time Wavelength Selective Switching (WSS)-ROADM is utilized in Africa, allowing for more flexible capacity management. 2Africa is also the first system of its size to make use of an innovative aluminum conductor for submarine cable systems.

The 2Africa cable system has a design capacity of up to 180Tbps on 16 fiber pairs on key parts of the system. On the West segment, from England to South Africa, 2Africa supports 21 Tbps per fiber pair with 8 fiber pairs on the trunk, totaling 168 Tbps. In the Mediterranean, shorter distances allow for more than 30 Tbps per fiber pair, and with 16 fiber pairs, the system can deliver over 180 Tbps in these segments.

The 2Africa consortium comprises 8 international partners, China Mobile International, Meta (Facebook), Bayobab (formerly MTN GlobalConnect), Orange, center 3 (stc Group), Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC. 

stc's investment in the 2Africa Pearls is US$205 millions, as released by stc in a press release.

Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has been awarded to build the 2Africa cable.

The 2Africa cable system was initially scheduled to go live in 2024, finally achieve the activation of its core infrastructure in November 2025, with its gulf extension 2Africa Pearls to go live in 2026 and segments in the Red Sea pending for installation.