The world’s longest internet backbone has finally landed on European soil. The 2Africa consortium, led by Meta (ex-Facebook) with the international operators Orange, Vodafone, China Mobile, MTN, STC, Telecom Egypt or WIOCC, announced last week the first landing of this cable on the Italian coasts, in l occurrence in Genoa.
“This landing sets the tone for other landings in the months to come, with the cable being extended to a total of 46 sites by the project’s completion in 2024”, rejoices on the side of the actors involved in this large-scale project, including Orange and ASN (assigned to manufacture the cable).
There is something. “At 45,000 km, it will be the longest undersea cable ever deployed, serving communities that depend on the internet for services ranging from education to healthcare and business, and will benefit all of the economic and social benefits resulting from this increased connectivity”, rejoices the consortium.
The longest cable in the world
The system, operational in 2024, will have a nominal capacity of up to 180 Tbps. Even better: it will be equipped with a spatial division multiplexing technology allowing the deployment of 16 pairs of fibers, as well as a reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer with selective switching according to the wavelength, intended to allow more flexible capacity management.
In Europe, the 2Africa cable will interconnect Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy and France to the African and Asian continents. In France, Marseille, one of the largest coastal hubs in the world, was selected to land the cable. The arrival of “this cable will revolutionize connectivity in Africa and arrives in Marseille”, argued Fabrice Coquio, the president of the French branch of Interxion, questioned at the end of last year by the editorial staff of ZDNet.
2Africa will not be the only Internet backbone to go up to the Phocaean city, which is also preparing to welcome the PEACE cable as well as the Sea-Me-We 6 network, operational by 2025. In total, the cable 2Africa should make it possible to participate in the connectivity of three billion people in the world, or 36% of the world’s population.
Revolutionizing African Connectivity
On the African continent, where connectivity is often absent, the 2Africa cable should ensure the connection of 16 countries (including Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Gabon, Africa of the South, Madagascar or even Djibouti).
“In countries where 2Africa Cable lands, service providers will obtain capacity in neutral data centers and open access cable landing stations on a fair and equitable basis. First submarine cable system to seamlessly linking East and West Africa through a single open system, 2Africa will enable new routes of communication from coast to coast,” the Meta group said during its presentation of the project.
A project which has also evolved a lot since its launch in May 2020. While the total length of the 2Africa network was then to be around 37,000 km, covering 23 countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, this one was extended to 45,000 km to connect three more African countries (namely Angola, Seychelles and Comoros). It now remains to be seen to what extent the landfall of the cable carried by Meta will improve the connectivity of the countries concerned, particularly with regard to the regions located beyond their coastlines.