The consortium behind 2Africa, a new broadband cable encircling the African continent, has announced the completion of the new system’s core infrastructure.
The vast system, built by Meta Platforms and partners including MTN’s Bayobab, Vodafone Group and Wiocc Group, now connects 33 countries across Africa, Europe and Asia, reaching more than three billion people, Meta said in a blog post on Tuesday. It is the longest open-access submarine broadband cable system built to date.
The 2Africa project has been billed as one of the most ambitious subsea cable deployments in history. As previously reported by TechCentral, the system is the first to provide a continuous high-capacity ring around the African continent, with various landing points in South Africa.
With the “Pearls” extension set to go live in 2026, the completed system will stretch 45 000km – longer than Earth’s circumference. Pearls is a new segment of the cable system that extends its reach to the Arabian Gulf, India and Pakistan.
2Africa is the first cable to connect East and West Africa as part of a single system, while also linking Africa to the Middle East, South Asia and Europe. It features up to 16 fibre pairs using advanced spatial division multiplexing (SDM) technology – doubling the capacity of older systems – and incorporates undersea optical wavelength switching to manage high-bandwidth traffic with greater flexibility.
To protect the system and improve long-term resilience, engineers increased burial depth by 50% compared to previous generations and rerouted around seabed hazards – including seamounts and the highly active Congo Canyon turbidity currents. More than 60 oil and gas pipelines required engineered crossing solutions.
Construction was an epic logistical challenge: 35 offshore vessels were deployed, amounting to 32 years of cumulative vessel operations, with specialist equipment imported to support cable laying and shore-end work in remote regions, Meta said.
Staggering capacity
The cable’s capacity is staggering. On the West African trunk alone – stretching from the UK to South Africa – 2Africa delivers 21Tbit/s per fibre pair across eight fibre pairs, for a total trunk capacity of up to 180Tbit/s.
According to Meta, that’s enough to stream more than 36 million HD movies simultaneously. For cities such as Lagos or Cape Town, it means millions of concurrent high-bandwidth users without congestion. For telecommunications operators, the system should drive down wholesale bandwidth prices, stimulate competition and support cloud services, data centre growth and 5G deployment.
Read: More details emerge on massive new Seacom cable
Meta projects that 2Africa could contribute up to US$36.9-billion to Africa’s GDP in its first two to three years of full operation – a boost supported by academic studies showing strong links between subsea cable landings, job creation and the development of higher-skill digital economies.
The 50-jurisdiction deployment required deep cooperation between governments, regulators and private partners. Additional contributors – such as India’s Bharti Airtel and Nigeria’s MainOne (part of Equinix) – assisted with regional segments and data centre integration.
Crucially, the system is being deployed as an open-access cable, allowing any qualifying operator to buy capacity. This, the consortium said, will ensure broader competition, reduce prices and accelerate digital transformation across Africa. – © 2025 NewsCenrtral Media
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