Facebook and a team of African and global telecommunications companies announced today, Monday, the addition of 4 more countries to the largest submarine cable project in the world, in order to expand the construction project in Africa earlier than planned.
“Facebook” and the companies said in a statement that Internet connectivity will be expanded to include the Comoros, Seychelles, Angola and southeastern Nigeria, noting that these four countries are the latest addition to the recently announced extension in the Canary Islands, according to “Reuters”.
The largest submarine cable project in the world bears the name “2Africa”, and includes MTN companies in South Africa, “Vodafone”, “Facebook”, “China Mobile International”, “Telecom Egypt”, “STC” Saudi Arabia, and “Orange SA” France, as well as Mauritius-based infrastructure provider WIOCC.
“Facebook” and the companies added in its statement that the company “Alcatel Submarine Networks” for cable systems owned by “Nokia” has been assigned to deploy “branches” in the four new countries, which will increase the number of cables to 35 in 26 countries, which will contribute to improving connectivity in Africa and around the continent.
The largest submarine cable project was launched in May 2020 to connect those countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and is expected to be operational in late 2023.
Undersea cables form the backbone of the Internet, carrying 99 percent of the world’s data traffic.
The major economies of Africa have a large and rapidly growing number of Internet users, thanks to the rapid expansion of mobile broadband networks and affordable smartphones.
Despite this, Africa, with a population of just over 1.3 billion people, still lags behind in internet connectivity, with average smartphone internet users averaging around 26 percent versus a global average of 51 percent, according to Reuters.