Facebook to build its $1 Billion Cable to give Africa fast and stable internet.
Facebook Inc. in collaboration with China’s largest Telecom carrier, China Mobile Ltd, and other Telecom carriers will build a giant undersea cable to give Africa a faster and more stable internet.
The cost of the project will not exceed $1 billion, however, the exact budget has not been made public.
The 39,000-kilometre (23,000 miles) long cable, named “2Africa” will connect Europe to the Middle East and then to 16 African countries. The cable will be one of the longest in the world, trailing Sea-Me-We 3, to connect a total of 33 countries.
The undersea cable sector is experiencing a renewal. In the 1990s dot-com boom, phone companies spent over $20 billion laying fiber-optic lines under the oceans.
Today, tech giants, led by Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, are responsible for about 80% of the recent investment in transatlantic cable, which was motivated by the demand for fast-data transfers used for streaming movies to social messaging.
For some time now, Facebook has been wishing to improve connectivity in Africa to take advantage of a young population, providing greater connectivity, while increasing the availability and affordability of smartphones.
In 2016, the social-media giant tried to come out with a satellite to beam signal around the continent, but the SpaceX rocket carrying the technology blew up on the launchpad.
Last year, Google also announced its sub-sea cable that connects Europe to Africa using a route down the west coast.
According to a statement, 2Africa is anticipated to start operations by 2024 which will deliver more than the combined capacity of all sub-sea cables serving Africa.
The announcement follows the complaints from internet users across many sub-Saharan African countries about unstable internet service in January after two undersea cables were destroyed.
On the issue of the new cable, Facebook is working with 2 big wireless carriers in Africa. They include Johannesburg-based MTN Group Ltd. and Telecom Egypt Co.
Other companies involved are; Vodafone Group Plc, UK, and Paris-based Orange SA.
The company designated for the building of the cable is Nokia Oyj’s Alcatel Submarine Network.