Vodafone has announced that the 2Africa subsea cable is now connected at Bude, Cornwall in the UK. The 2Africa cable is the world’s largest subsea cable system improving internet connectivity between Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.
The 45,000 km cable is owned by Bayobab, China Mobile, Meta, Orange, Saudi Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC. Explaining the part it played in connecting 2Africa to the UK, Vodafone said:
“As the lead partner for the UK landing, Vodafone was responsible for managing the physical cable coming ashore, burial on the beach and installation into a new, purpose built beach manhole where 2Africa is connected to terrestrial cable routing back to the existing Vodafone Cable Landing Station. Vodafone also provides 2Africa with onward connectivity via two diverse terrestrial infrastructure and fibre routes linking to the London area.”
The announcement states that 2Africa has a capacity of up to 180 terabits per second (Tbps) and is the first system to deliver continuous capacity around Africa. In all, it connects 33 countries on three continents. Customer traffic has already started travelling on part of the cable the company said. It owns dual fibre cables that will last 25 years named SHARP after the Group’s Head of Subsea Partnerships, Rick Perry – the full title is the System Honouring the Achievements of Rick Perry, who has been in the industry for half a century.
Rick Perry provided commentary on the 2Africa news, stating:
“2Africa is the world’s most ambitious cable system and will help to narrow the digital divide in Africa. It’s great that the SHARP system is now online and serving customers and that it has landed in the UK.”
These subsea cables are used to send internet traffic across different landmasses such as Africa and Europe. The cables connect to land-based stations which decide the best route to send traffic to its next destination, this helps to minimise congestion and keep webpages loading quickly for you. By adding a new cable, the infrastructure can handle more load.
If you're interested in this and other cables, check out Submarine Cable Map.
Source: Vodafone
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