2Africa is an international submarine telecommunications cable that interconnects Africa and further connects Asia and Europe. It passes from Europe through the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean, and then back into Europe via the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
It is one of the first submarine cables to use spatial division multiplexing (SDM1) and has a design capacity of 180 Tbps across 16 fiber pairs. 2Africa is the largest subsea cable in the world, at 45,000 kilometers long, connecting 46 cable landing stations across 33 countries.
The system is to be constructed by Alcatel Submarine Networks and is intended to be operational in Q4 2025. In November 2025, Meta announced that the core 2Africa system was completed.
Cable ownership 2Africa is funded by a consortium consisting of eight members, namely:
Meta Platforms China Mobile MTN Group Orange S.A. Saudi Telecom Company Telecom Egypt Vodafone Group Plc West Indian Ocean Cable Company
Open access model The consortium has mandated that every operator of 2Africa must provide effective access to the international capacity at reasonable prices and on non-discriminatory terms. Cable landing station operators can be penalized and even completely disconnected from the 2Africa system if they fail to provide access to capacity at their landing points.
Landing points and operators +2Africa Cable Landing PointsLocationOperator & Technical PartnerBarcelona, SpainAFR-IX TelecomMarseille, FranceVodafone Group PlcGenoa, ItalyVodafone Group PlcTympaki, GreeceVodafone Group PlcPort Said, EgyptTelecom EgyptRas Ghareb, EgyptDuba, Saudi ArabiaSaudi Telecom CompanyYanbu, Saudi ArabiaSaudi Telecom CompanyJeddah, Saudi ArabiaDjibouti City, DjiboutiDjibouti TelecomBerbera, SomalilandSomCableMogadishu, SomaliaDalkom SomaliaVictoria, SeychellesIntelvisionMtwapa, KenyaAirtel KenyaMombasa, KenyaDar Es Salaam, TanzaniaAirtel TanzaniaNacala, MozambiqueVodacom MozambiqueMahajanga, MadagascarTelma MadagascarMaputo, MozambiqueVodacom MozambiqueAmanzimtoti, South AfricaWest Indian Ocean Cable CompanyGqeberha, South AfricaVodacomYzerfontein, South AfricaMTN GroupDuynefontein, South AfricaLuanda, AngolaUnitel AngolaMoanda, DR CongoOrange RDC, Airtel DRCPointe-Noire, DR CongoLibreville, GabonAirtel GabonAkwa Ibom State, NigeriaMainOne (Equinix)Lagos, NigeriaBayobab (MTN Group)Accra, GhanaBayobab (MTN Group)Abidjan, Ivory CoastMTN GroupDakar, SenegalSonatelTelde, Canary IslandsVodafone Group PlcCarcavelos, PortugalVodafone Group PlcBude, United KingdomVodafone Group Plc In September 2021, 2Africa announced a new segment of the cable called '2Africa PEARLS', which extends to the Persian Gulf, India and Pakistan. +2Africa PEARLS BranchLocationOperator & Technical PartnerKalba, UAEEtisalat by e&Barka, OmanOoredoo OmanSalalah, OmanDoha, QatarVodafone QatarManama, BahrainSaudi Telecom CompanyAl Khobar, Saudi ArabiaSaudi Telecom CompanyKuwait City, KuwaitKEMS Zajil TelecomAl-Faw, IraqITPCKarachi, PakistanTransworld AssociatesMumbai, IndiaBharti Airtel
See also List of international submarine communications cables References
External links
Press Release with Map on Businesswire Facebook Engineering 2Africa page