Cable type | Fibre-optic |
---|---|
Design capacity | 180 Tbit/s |
Built by | Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN) |
Area served | Africa, Middle East, and Europe [1] |
Website | www |
2Africa is an international submarine telecommunications cable that circumnavigates the coastline of Africa to interconnect Europe and the Middle East. The 2Africa cable project is being funded by a consortium of eight global partners. [2]
The system will be one of the first to use spatial division multiplexing (SDM1) and has a design capacity of 180 Tbps across 16 fiber pairs. [3] [4] When complete, 2Africa will be the largest subsea cable in the world, at 45,000 kilometers long, connecting 46 cable landing stations across 33 countries. [5]
2Africa passes from Europe through the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean, and then back into Europe via the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. [3]
The system is to be constructed by Alcatel Submarine Networks. [6] and is intended to be operational in 2024. [5]
2Africa is owned by a consortium consisting of eight members, namely: [2]
In September 2021, 2Africa announced a new segment of the cable called '2Africa PEARLS', which is planned to extend to the Persian Gulf, India and Pakistan. [35]
Location | Operator & Technical Partner |
---|---|
Barka, Oman Salalah, Oman | Ooredoo Oman [36] |
Doha, Qatar | Vodafone Qatar [37] |
Manama, Bahrain | Batelco, Saudi Telecom Company [38] |
Kuwait City, Kuwait | KEMS Zajil Telecom [39] |
Al-Faw, Iraq | ITPC, [39] Saudi Telecom Company [40] |
Karachi, Pakistan | Transworld Associates [41] |
Mumbai, India | Bharti Airtel [42] |
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