The 2Africa subsea cable has landed at the Vodacom network facility in Gqeberha, in the Eastern Cape, marking the third landing on the coast of South Africa of the world’s largest submarine cable system.

The first submarine cable landing in the Eastern Cape region, for which Vodacom is the designated landing partner, follows the two recent landings in Yzerfontein and Duynefontein, in the Western Cape, by MTN GlobalConnect in December.

In 2023, it is expected that connectivity solutions provider WIOCC will achieve the fourth South African landing at the Amanzimtoti cable landing station, in KwaZulu-Natal.

The cable, which was launched in May 2020, is being deployed by the 2Africa consortium, which includes China Mobile International, Meta, Orange, center3, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, MTN GlobalConnect and WIOCC in an effort to significantly increase the capacity, quality and availability of Internet connectivity between Africa and the rest of the world.

The cable system, with a design capacity of 180 Tb/s, will interconnect Europe, eastward through Egypt, the Middle East through Saudi Arabia and Africa.

The 2Africa South Africa-based landings are part of several cable landings taking place across 46 locations in 33 countries across Africa, Asia and Europe, which started with the first landing in April 2022, in Genoa, Italy.

In addition to the four landings in South Africa, there will be two each in Mozambique, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia and Egypt, as part of an overall 27 total landings in Africa.

Moreover, 2Africa is one of the largest subsea projects in the world, initially announced as being 37 000 km in length, connecting 23 countries, including 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa, before being expanded in August 2021 with the addition of four new branches to extend connectivity to the Seychelles, the Comoros Islands and Angola and bring a new landing to south-east Nigeria.

In September 2021, 2Africa officially announced the extension of 2Africa Pearls, extending to the Gulf, Pakistan and India, extending the cable length to the current target of 45 000 km.

Alcatel Submarine Networks is responsible for manufacturing and deploying the 2Africa cable, which is due for completion in 2024 and expected to bring about significant economic benefits.

According to a study by independent nonprofit research institute RTI International, 2Africa is predicted to unlock economic impact of between $26.2-billion and $36.9-billion, which is equivalent to between 0.42% and 0.58% of Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP), within two to three years of becoming operational.

The study further revealed a range of positive impacts, from an over 8% increase in employment in areas that are connected to fibre to a 19% increase in GDP per capita for countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Vodacom Group international markets chief officer Diego Gutierrez says that the 2Africa project underpins the further growth of fourth-generation, fifth-generation and fixed broadband access by providing improved connectivity to underserved and rural areas, and network resilience from the Eastern Cape to the rest of South Africa.

Vodacom provides the facilities for Eastern Cape branch installation at an existing site in the Summerstrand area.

It is expected to accelerate connectivity, enable greater Internet capacity and help to develop telecommunications networks across the Eastern Cape and surrounding provinces.

“Through the 2Africa landing at Gqeberha, service providers will be able to obtain capacity on a fair and equitable basis, encouraging and supporting the development of a healthy Internet ecosystem. Direct international connectivity can then be provided to data centres, enterprise and wholesale customers,” says Gutierrez.

“Once the fibre cable system has been deployed, businesses and consumers will benefit from improved quality, reliability and lower latency for Internet services, including telecommuting, high-definition video streaming and advanced multimedia and mobile video applications.”

The cable system’s landing in the Eastern Cape will also offer the potential for much-needed regional job creation in sectors that rely on direct international connectivity, such as data centres, call centres and software development, further contributing to local and national socioeconomic development.

“Strategic partnerships such as the one we have with the 2Africa consortium will help us accelerate and deepen Internet adoption and socioeconomic progress across the African continent,” says MTN group president and CEO Ralph Mupita, pointing out that data traffic across African markets is expected to grow four- to fivefold over the next five years.

This requires infrastructure and capacity to meet that level of growth and demand, he continues, adding that, as part of MTN’s Ambition 2025 strategy, the company will deploy 135 000 km of proprietary fibre by 2025, generating up to $1-billion in revenue and entrenching MTN as the number one African fibre player, by building subsea and terrestrial scalable capacity and resilience.

In December 2022, MTN GlobalConnect, the 2Africa landing party in Duynefontein and Yzerfontein, partnered with MTN South Africa to land the Western Cape branches.

The Yzerfontein landing will support the 2Africa West cable and the MTN South Africa landing station in Duynefontein will support the 2Africa East cable.

For MTN GlobalConnect, the South African landing is the first in a series of six across five countries, including Sudan, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Ghana.

The 2Africa subsea cable system will support the western and eastern sides of Africa, once completed in 2023 and 2024 respectively, with South African service providers able to acquire capacity in carrier-neutral data centres or open-access cable landing stations on a fair and equitable basis.