(Finance) – The 2Africa consortium formed by China Mobile International, Meta, MTN GlobalConnect, Orangestc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC, announced today the first laying of the submarine cable system in Genoa. The event paves the way for future installation operations that will involve 46 locations by 2024.
The 2Africa submarine cable system, along with its Pearls extension, sets out to bring connectivity to around 3 billion people36% of the global population, in Africa, Europe and Asia. It will be the longest submarine cable ever built for 45,000 km in length and will allow the internet to be used for education, healthcare and business.
Vodafone, partner of the installation operation of 2Africa in Genoa, has collaborated with Equinix for installing the cable directly in the Carrier Neutral Data Center (CNDC) of Equinix, while Retelit provided the fronthaul. Service providers will benefit from fair bandwidth capacity to encourage and support the development of a thriving internet ecosystem locally.
Working alongside a local Italian operator, 2Africa has developed a new land route which connects the cable laying station (CLS – Cable Landing Station) of Genoa directly to the main CNDCs in Milan.