The 2Africa consortium, comprised of China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC, has announced the addition of four new branches to the 2Africa submarine cable. 

In a statement, the consortium said the branches will extend 2Africa’s connectivity to the Seychelles, Comoros Islands and Angola, and bring a new landing to south-east Nigeria. The new branches join the recently announced extension to the Canary Islands. 

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With a length of 37,000 kilometers, 2Africa will be one of the world’s largest subsea cable projects, connecting Europe (through Egypt) to the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia) and 25 landings in 16 African countries. With a design capacity of up to 180Tbps on crucial elements of the system, the system is expected to go live in 2023/4, delivering more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables servicing Africa today. 

Improved Bandwidth Means Increase In Capacity To Process Data, Vital For Explosion In Digital Activities

2Africa will provide much-needed internet capacity and dependability over most of Africa, supplementing the Middle East’s rapidly expanding capacity need and enabling the further expansion of 4G, 5G, and fixed broadband connectivity for hundreds of millions of people.

“As one of the world’s leading multi-service telecommunications operators and present in 18 countries in Africa and the Middle East, it was natural for Orange to be part of the 2Africa project. This major investment will complete our existing submarine and pan-African terrestrial infrastructures to provide access to international connectivity in a redundant fashion throughout the west coast of Africa. It will enable Orange to securely meet the demand for increased bandwidth necessary for the continued digital development of regions throughout the 2Africa system,” Alioune Ndiaye, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, said at the launch of the 2Africa project recently. 

Undersea cables provide for rapid communication by delivering 95% of all data and voice traffic that crosses international borders. “Many people around the world believe that their emails and phone messages are being sent through satellites. They are mistaken because satellites account for less than 5%,” said Matis Matthew of the US War College. Thus, under-sea cables have a far higher capacity and are more reliable than satellites.

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Under-sea cables also serve as the backbone of the global economy, transmitting nearly $10 trillion in financial transactions each day. 

“Improving connectivity for Africa is a significant step which lays the groundwork for increased digitalisation across the continent,” said Vinod Kumar, CEO Vodafone Business. “2Africa will give local businesses and consumers a better online experience while more connectivity between Africa, Europe and the Middle East will help to build a wider, more inclusive digital society across the globe.”

The 2Africa cable will use ASN’s SDM1 technology, which allows for the deployment of up to 16 fiber pairs instead of the eight supported by earlier technologies, resulting in significantly higher and more cost-effective capacity. Optical switching technology will be used in the cable to allow for flexible bandwidth control. In comparison to the previous system, the cable burial depth has been raised by 50%.

Why This Matters For Nigeria’s Tech Startup Landscape

Before now, Lagos is almost synonymous with Nigeria whenever Nigeria’s tech startup ecosystem and the investments that come to it are mentioned. One of the reasons for this is partly because of the population density of the city, which is home to more than 20 million people.

But then, supporting the fast processing of data of the city’s teeming population are submarine cables. Presently, all of Nigeria’s existing five international submarine cables — including the SAT3 cable, MainOne cable, Glo1 cable, ACE cable, and WACS cable, which were landed by Natcom, MainOne, Glo 1, Dolphin Telecom, and MTN respectively and have a capacity of over 40 Tbps — have only landed in Lagos. The city holds about 15.2% of the country’s entire internet population (14,192,283 subscribers). 

In the entire south east of Nigeria — made of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states — there are close to 15 million active internet subscribers, as at Q3 2019.

The figures are even more interesting when a combination of adjoining states, where the highest economic activities occur, is made. For instance, the south eastern state of Anambra which forms an urban conurbation with Delta, alone, has more than 5 million active internet users. The state of Delta, on its own, has more than 4 million internet subscribers. Most interesting also is when another neighbouring state such as Abia, with over 3 million internet subscribers, is added to the combination. This therefore, presents additional — often neglected — markets for tech startups looking to scale their businesses outside Lagos.

As a result, the undersea cables will boost fast and reliable processing of digital data for the present digital population in the region while also encouraging penetration into previously unreached areas.

A recent report has listed Enugu — a city in the region — as Nigeria’s fifth biggest startup city behind Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

Collectively, the region also have an average GDP per capita of around $1300, compared to Lagos’ $7000, or Uganda’s capital city Kampala’s estimated $2000. 

“We’re excited to be collaborating with our 2Africa partners on the most comprehensive subsea cable that will serve the continent,” said Najam Ahmad, Vice President, Network Infrastructure at Facebook. “2Africa is a major element of our ongoing investment in Africa to bring more people online to a faster internet. We’ve seen first-hand the positive impact that increased connectivity has on communities, from education to healthcare. We know that economies flourish when there is widely accessible internet for businesses. 2Africa is a key pillar supporting this tremendous internet expansion as part of Africa’s surging digital economy.”

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer