2Africa cable goes live across most regions after five years of construction
The 45,000km long project is officially the world's largest subsea cable system.
After five long years of slowly putting together what’s now considered the largest subsea cable project in the world, the 2Africa submarine cable is finally complete. Meta has officially confirmed that the core system is built and activated, linking Africa to Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia through one continuous 45,000 km loop, though the full, extended network won’t be complete until the Pearls extension launches.
In simple terms, Africa is now plugged directly into a high-capacity global internet backbone that stretches across 33 countries and three continents.'
Emmanuel Oyedeji
This completion didn’t come easy. To get this monster of a cable in place, Meta and its partners, including MTN’s Bayobab, Orange, Vodafone Group, center3, Telecom Egypt, WIOCC, and others, had to push subsea engineering beyond its usual limits. The team had to deploy 35 offshore vessels, operate across 50 jurisdictions, and in some regions import specialised diving and burial equipment just to pull the cable ashore.
They used new spatial division multiplexing to double fibre capacity and added undersea wavelength switching so bandwidth could be rerouted on the fly. In some ways, the project felt less like installing a cable and more like stitching together an entirely new digital spine for the continent.
Now that the heavy lifting is done, the system’s real appeal is in what it enables. 2Africa delivers more capacity than all existing African subsea cables combined, offering up to 180Tbps on key routes. That’s essentially a near-limitless supply of international bandwidth for ISPs and mobile operators, enough to support cloud services, data centres, 5G expansion, AI workloads, and the everyday digital habits of millions of people. For a city like Lagos, it could mean millions of people streaming, video-calling, studying, and working online at the same time without the usual evening slowdowns.
This is where the economic side kicks in. Studies estimate the cable could add up to $36.9 billion to Africa’s GDP within just a few years of going live. Faster, cheaper, and more reliable connectivity doesn’t just boost browsing speeds; it fuels jobs, productivity, and cross-border digital trade. It also gives startups the runway to build products that weren’t previously feasible because the infrastructure just wasn’t there.
With the core system lit and most landing points ready for service, 2Africa is finally transitioning from concept to real-world impact. The full network, including the Pearls extension, won’t be complete until 2026, but the majority is already active. For a project that has long carried the title of the biggest subsea cable ever attempted, the payoff will be measured not just in bandwidth but in whether it can genuinely reshape Africa’s digital trajectory. And now, at least, the cable is ready to try.
Oyinebiladou Omemu
