The West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) has landed the world’s largest subsea cable, 2Africa, in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.
The 45,000km, 180 Terabits per second (Tbps) cable is now connected to various Open Access Data Centres in the province, including one run by WIOCC in Durban. This offers the region and the country increase in international capacity and the promise of more reliable internet and other connectivity services.
The 2Africa cable project was launched in May 2020 to significantly increase the capacity, quality and availability of internet connectivity between Africa and the rest of the world. At the time, the cable was 37,000 km in length, connecting 23 countries, including 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa. In August 2021, 2Africa added 4 branches to extend connectivity to Seychelles, the Comoros Islands and Angola and to south-east Nigeria. Later in September 2021, the cable was extended to Pearls, the Gulf, Pakistan and India, connecting 46 cable landing stations in 33 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, with a cable length of 45,000km.
The 2Africa subsea cable connects to WIOCC’s data centre in Durban.
In a statement, WIOCC said the cable delivers, “scale and client focus required to maximize opportunities for carriers, content providers, fixed and mobile network operators, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to host their equipment and applications, and to increase the speed and reliability of the connectivity and services they provide to their customers.”
WIOCC Group Chief Executive Officer, Chris Wood said, “The subsea cable system is enabling more communities to access transformative online resources, from education and healthcare to jobs and financial services, and experience the economic and social benefits of seamless connectivity.”
Africa has morphed into a favourite playground for Big-Tech companies seeking to tap into the continent’s huge potential for data and internet connectivity.
There has been a rapid growth of data centres across the continent, underscoring the need for faster and better internet connectivity. delivery of internet. Google recently laid its Equiono undersea cable, connecting South Africa to Portugal.
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