Page 63 - SAMENA Trends - May-June 2024

ARTICLE SAMENA TRENDS

ARTICLE

Subsea Cable Route Evolution in 2024

45,000km. With 46 planned cable landing operation for over 12 years.
stations, the 2Africa system will directly
serve 33 countries in Africa, Asia, and For comparison, WACS, even after being
Europe with high quality and highly reliable upgraded in 2015 and 2019, only has a
connectivity. total capacity of 14.5Tbps over its four
fibre pairs. 2Africa, on the other hand, has a
Equipped with 16 fibre pairs and a capacity capacity of 180Tbps over its 16 fibre pairs.
of 180Tbps, the cable is exceptionally well The cable is expected to be operational
equipped to deal with the connectivity in 2024, with the PEARLS branch – which
needs of the entire African continent. extends the system to Oman, the UAE,
The global requirements for faster and Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, India,
securer connectivity continue to accelerate. 2Africa is owned by a consortium and Saudi Arabia – planned for service
The developing nations in Africa, Asia, and comprising major players from across all in 2025. The addition of PEARLS will not
the Middle East are particularly growing three continents: Bayobab, Center3, CMI, only greatly enhance the 2Africa cable’s
more digital, while the world’s more Meta, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone connectivity to the Gulf region, furthermore,
developed conomies continue to grow Group, and WIOCC. to offer further connections to the entire
more data hungry because of emerging APAC region through CMI’s self-invested
technologies thriving on 5G networks. The impact that 2Africa is expected to cables.
have on the African continent cannot be
In response to this booming demand, understated. The continent is growing Diversify and expand: The PEACE cable
China Mobile International Limited (CMI) increasingly digitalised, with data usage, In contrast to the near ubiquitous nature of
is investing heavily in related submarine especially mobile data usage – booming. the 2Africa cable, the PEACE cable system
cable infrastructure. In the 2023 Mobility Report, Ericsson is far more targeted.

Part of four new cable systems – 2Africa, Circumnavigating the entire African continent and linking it
IAX, IEX, and PEACE – are all planned
to go live this year, when a number of to Europe and Asia, 2Africa is set to be the largest submarine
other submarine cable systems are also cable system ever deployed, spanning over 45,000km. With
scheduled. Taken together with their
existing cable projects, these new systems 46 planned cable landing stations, the 2Africa system will
will create an interconnected backbone for directly serve 33 countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe with
international data traffic, bolstering these
transport routes between Asia and the rest high quality and highly reliable connectivity.
of the world for years to come.
found that Sub-Saharan Africa is the Spanning roughly 15,000km, this route
fastest growing region in the world when connects Marseille, France, to Karachi,
Unlocking a continent: The 2Africa cable it comes to total mobile data traffic, with Pakistan, with an additional branch
A study from RTI estimated that 2Africa’s a CAGR of 33% anticipated between 2023 extending to Mombasa, Kenya, and Victoria,
economic impact in Africa will be a boost and 2029. As such, access to high quality Seychelles.
of $26.2 billion to $36.9 billion within two submarine cable infrastructure will soon
to three years of the system’s activation. become imperative for these nations to The PEACE system operates on an open-
This is equivalent to around 0.5% of Africa’s make the most of emerging technologies cable model and is committed to providing
GDP. and transform the local economy. This neutral, flexible and non-differentiated
is especially true for nations like the interconnection services for various
Circumnavigating the entire African Democratic Republic of the Congo, which operators, OTTs and enterprises across
continent and linking it to Europe and Asia, is currently served by just a single existing the regions. The system is designed for a
2Africa is set to be the largest submarine submarine cable – the West Africa Cable maximum capacity of 192Tbps and offers
cable system ever deployed, spanning over System (WACS), which has been in substantially reduced network latency by

63 MAY-JUNE 2024