English (UK) 
简体中文(中国) The 2Africa consortium announced the addition of four new branches to the 2Africa cable. The branches will extend 2Africa’s connectivity to the Seychelles, the Comoros Islands, and Angola, and bring a new landing to south-east Nigeria. So far, the 2Africa cable will have 35 landing points in 26 countries, being the largest subsea cable project in the world.
The 2Africa consortium comprises China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, WIOCC, etc.
Launched in May 2020, the 2Africa cable was then initiated to connect 23 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe, with a cable length of 37,000km long and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa. Now, three more countries will be connected with 2Africa cable, i.e., the Seychelles, the Comoros Islands and Angola. There is saying that 2Africa is negotiating additional extension to land in India.
Earlier in June, Vodafone announced to deploy a new extension of the 2Africa submarine cable to connect the Canary Islands and the Iberian Peninsula. Vodafone will implement the project together with the Cabildo de Tenerife through CanaLink. The Canary Islands – Iberian Peninsula extension will create an optical route between Telde (Canary Islands) and Continental Europe. Vodafone and the Cabildo de Tenerife through Canalink each have a 50% stake in the Canary Islands section.
One of 2Africa’s key segments, the Egypt terrestrial crossing that interconnects landing sites on the Red and the Mediterranean Seas via two completely diverse terrestrial routes, has been completed ahead of schedule. A third diverse marine path will complement this segment via the Red Sea.
Telecom Egypt provides brand-new terrestrial crossing routes linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean for the 2Africa cable system. 2Africa will land in the two sites in Egypt that were selected precisely to assure physical and geographical diversity. On the Red Sea, 2Africa will be landing in Ras Ghareb landing site which is located 100 Km south of the Zafarana Landing station, whereas the Mediterranean landing site, Port Said, is located 250 Km east of the Alexandria landing station. Both Ras Ghareb and Port Said are connected with two new and diverse terrestrial routes and includes the deployment of next generation fibre , the routes is in vicinity with the Suez Canal from Suez to Port Said, and will be complemented with a third new marine path linking Ras Ghareb and Suez landing stations.
Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has been selected to deploy the new branches as well as the whole system, which will have 35 landing points in 26 countries, further improving connectivity into and around Africa. As with other 2Africa cable landings, capacity will be available to service providers at carrier-neutral data centres or open-access cable landing stations on a fair and equitable basis, encouraging and supporting the development of a healthy internet ecosystem.
Most of the subsea route survey activity is now complete. ASN has started manufacturing the cable and building repeater units in its factories in Calais and Greenwich to deploy the first segments in 2022.
The 2Africa cable system is expected to be ready for service by late 2023.
