05 November 2023

Work to install the Senegalese branch of this infrastructure began at the end of October with the arrival in Dakar of a cable ship from Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), a Nokia subsidiary responsible for the construction of the cable. ASN will work with Sonatel, which is responsible for the construction of the 2Africa landing station in Senegal.

“We will retain the nominal capacity to be 180Tbps on key elements of the system, to improve connectivity in Africa and meet the growing demand for capacity in the Middle East. It is also intended to facilitate the deployment of 4G, 5G and broadband access for hundreds of millions of people,” said Sonatel said in a statement.

2Africa will become the fifth international fibre optic submarine cable to which Senegal connects. The country is already served by the SAT-3 (South Atlantic 3), ACE (Africa Coast to Europe), ATLANTIS-2 and SHARE (Senegal Horn of Africa Regional Express) cables.

The commissioning of this infrastructure is expected not only to improve the quality and coverage of broadband Internet services, but also to reduce the costs of services. This will reach millions more people and meet ever-growing demand. This should also accelerate the Senegalese government's digital transformation ambitions.