Earlier this week, MTN South Africa and MTN GlobalConnect, in association with the 2Africa consortium, which incorporates China Mobile International, Meta, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, center3, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC, announced that the 45 000km 2Africa cable has landed in South Africa.
In a statement released to the media, MTN notes that this landing is the first in a series of six across five countries: South Africa (two), Sudan, Cote D’Ivoire, Nigeria and Ghana.
The telecom companies state that the 2Africa cable connection will go live in 2023 and is expected to play a major role in delivering much-needed capacity in Africa from Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
The 2Africa landing is one of several cable landings taking place across 46 locations in 33 countries.
Ralph Mupita, MTN Group President and CEO, said, “Strategic partnerships like the one we have with the 2Africa consortium will help us accelerate and deepen internet adoption and socio-economic progress across the African continent. Data traffic across African markets is expected to grow four and five-fold over the next five years, so we need infrastructure and capacity to meet that growth and demand”.
“Our target, underpinned by MTN’s Ambition 2025 strategy, is to roll out a total of 135 000 km of proprietary fibre by 2025, generating up to US$ 1 billion in revenue,” Mupita added.
MTN GlobalConnect CEO Frédéric Schepens said, “MTN GlobalConnect is pleased to participate in this bold 2Africa subsea cable project. The initiative complements our terrestrial fibre strategy to connect African countries to the rest of the world. In addition, we are building scale infrastructure assets to meet the explosive growth in data traffic and accelerate the digital economy on the continent by creating a pan-African fibre railroad driving affordable connectivity.”
He added, “We are proud of the progress made on our journey and of the key role we play in providing South Africans and the rest of Africa with the benefits of a modern connected life.”
The partners add that the 2Africa subsea cable system will support Africa’s western and eastern sides once complete in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
