Meta Inc., parent company of WhatsApp and Facebook, has announced the completion and activation of the core 2Africa Subsea Cable system. The infrastructure is set to link East and West Africa to the Middle East, South Asia and Europe.
In a statement seen by Technext, the facility was completed in collaboration with Bayobab (MTN Group), Orange, center3, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone Group, and WIOCC. The subsea cable, the first to connect Africa to the rest of the world, will transform connectivity for 3 billion people, including Africa’s 1.4 billion people, over the next 10 years.
Meta noted that the achievement marks a historic milestone in digital infrastructure, which is currently the world’s longest open-access subsea cable system. The 2Africa’s complete system length of 45,000 kilometres is longer than the equivalent of the Earth’s circumference.
Reacting to the development, Meta’s Vice President, Public Policy, Africa, Middle East & Türkiye, Kojo Boakye, explained that the completion of 2Africa is a “monumental achievement” for Africa. He noted that the facility will unlock new opportunities for millions of Africans and empower businesses to accelerate economic growth.
“At Meta, we are proud to be the architects of this transformative infrastructure and remain deeply committed to investing in Africa’s digital future, in partnership with the ecosystem,” he added.
The project spanned 50 jurisdictions and nearly six years of work, seeing further collaborations with local partners for cable landing, construction, and regulatory processes. Meta explained that it relied on the active engagement of regulators and policymakers to navigate requirements and keep progress on track.
“2Africa marks a defining moment for Africa’s digital future. By leading the design, funding and deployment of the world’s longest open‑access subsea cable to date, Meta and its partners are laying the foundation for faster, more reliable internet, new digital jobs and the next generation of online experiences,” Boakye noted.
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Meta: an explainer of 2Africa’s strength
The subsea cable marks a defining moment for Africa’s economy and community development. The facility represents a major change in international bandwidth for Africa, with technical capacity that far exceeds previous systems.
Meta said the cable, on the West segment, stretched from England to South Africa, and landed in countries such as Senegal, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, DRC, and Angola. In addition, the cable supports 21 terabits per second (Tbps) per fibre pair, with 8 fibre pairs on the trunk. This results in a total trunk capacity of up to 180 Tbps.
“This massive capacity ensures a near-limitless supply of international internet bandwidth, allowing internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile network operators (MNOs) to secure capacity at much lower wholesale prices,” Meta said.
Break it down, the 180Tbps capacity is enough to stream over 36 million HD movies simultaneously (assuming 5 megabits per second (Mbps) per stream). This means that an individual has the potential to download 15,000 full-length Nollywood films (each about 1.5 GB) per second, or enable students to access a remote university’s full library in a minute.
For a populous city like Lagos, it means millions of people can video call, stream, and work online at the same time without experiencing slowdowns or congestion.
Meta said 2Africa supports modern digital infrastructure, including cloud services, data centres, and 5G deployment.
