The project, which connects East and West Africa with Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, is designed to increase international capacity and improve network resilience across one of the fastest-growing bandwidth markets in the world.
The system currently spans 33 countries and reaches an estimated three billion people, with further expansion already under way. Once the planned “Pearls” extension is activated in 2026, the full 2Africa network will stretch more than 45,000km, exceeding the circumference of the Earth and creating a new backbone for global hyperscale and carrier connectivity.
Developed by a consortium including Meta, Bayobab (MTN Group), center3 (stc), China Mobile International, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC, the system is fully open-access, enabling operators, ISPs and cloud providers to procure capacity on equal commercial terms.
This architecture is expected to lower wholesale transit costs, stimulate new infrastructure investment and support next-generation services such as cloud computing, 5G and emerging AI workloads.
At the technical level, 2Africa uses spatial division multiplexing (SDM) to deliver up to 16 fibre pairs per cable and a total trunk capacity of around 180Tbps on the West African route alone. Meta claims the network can support tens of millions of simultaneous HD video streams and enable enterprise-grade cloud applications with significantly reduced latency. The system also incorporates undersea optical wavelength switching and advanced branching unit technology, allowing flexible provisioning and improved resilience.
Installation required complex marine engineering across some of the world’s most challenging seabed terrain. Routes were adapted to avoid geological hazards such as the Congo Canyon, while burial depth was increased by 50% compared with legacy systems. Construction involved 35 offshore vessels and extensive near-shore operations to bring the landing segments online.
Analysts say the project could inject more than US$36 billion into Africa’s economy within its first years of full operation, driven by enhanced digital participation, enterprise expansion and new data centre development across the continent.
With the core system now complete and the Pearls extension imminent, 2Africa is set to become the primary international gateway for African connectivity and a strategic asset for the global hyperscale ecosystem.
RELATED STORIES
China Mobile boosts global subsea network with major Hong Kong and Africa milestones
ITW Africa 2026
Africa’s leading connectivity event, uniting key leaders and decision-makers across the entire value chain. Whether you’re involved in carriers, data centres, content, cloud, finance, satellite, or the vendor community, ITW Africa is the event to attend.
