Connecting Africa and the World: Completion of the 2Africa Subsea Cable System

Connecting Africa and the World

The core 2Africa infrastructure, the world’s longest open access subsea cable system, is now complete. This landmark project represents a new standard in global connectivity, resulting from years of collaboration and a shared vision to connect communities and drive economic growth across Africa and beyond.

Unprecedented Scale and Reach

2Africa is the first cable to directly connect East and West Africa, and link Africa to the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe. The system currently reaches 33 countries and provides connectivity for 3 billion people, representing more than 30% of the global population.

Why This Matters

Existing subsea infrastructure often lacks the capacity and reach to meet the rapidly growing demand for internet access in Africa. The 2Africa cable addresses this by providing unprecedented bandwidth and geographic coverage, unlocking economic opportunities and supporting the growth of digital services, particularly AI-driven applications, across the continent. Without such infrastructure, digital inclusion and economic growth are significantly hampered, costing billions in potential GDP.

Key Insights

• SDM Technology: 2Africa utilizes advanced spatial division multiplexing (SDM) supporting up to 16 fiber pairs per cable, doubling the capacity of older systems.
• Capacity Metric: The West segment alone supports 21 terabits per second (Tbps) per fiber pair, with a total trunk capacity of up to 180 Tbps.
• Burial Depth: Increased burial depth by 50% over previous systems improves resilience and network availability.

Working Example

# Example calculation of potential streaming capacity
total_capacity_tbps = 180
stream_rate_mbps = 5 # Mbps per HD stream
conversion_factor = 1000 # Mbps per Tbps

total_streams = (total_capacity_tbps * conversion_factor) / stream_rate_mbps
print(f"Potential simultaneous HD streams: {int(total_streams)}") # Output: 36000000

Practical Applications

• Use Case: ISPs in Senegal can leverage 2Africa to offer significantly reduced wholesale bandwidth prices, increasing internet access for consumers.
• Pitfall: Insufficient local infrastructure (last-mile connectivity) can limit the full benefits of increased bandwidth provided by 2Africa.

References:

• https://engineering.fb.com/2025/11/17/connectivity/core-2africa-system-completion-future-connectivity/