Kenya part of Facebook fibre cable network

Kenya is one of 16 countries in Africa to be included in a new undersea fibre cable network by Internet platform giant Facebook.

The undersea fibre cable will be built in partnership with China Mobile International, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, STC, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC).

At 37,000km, the 2Africa cable will be one of the world’s largest subsea cable projects connecting Europe (eastward via Egypt), the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia), and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa.

The system is expected to go live by 2024 and will deliver more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables currently serving Africa, with a design capacity of up to 180Tbps on key parts of the system.

“2Africa will deliver much-needed internet capacity and reliability across large parts of Africa, supplement the fast-growing capacity demand in the Middle East and underpin the further growth of 4G, 5G and fixed broadband access for hundreds of millions of people,” said a statement from Facebook announcing the 2Africa project.

This comes at a time when Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are struggling to meet a surge in demand for steady broadband, as more sectors in the economy move operations to the Internet in the wake of the spread of COVID 19.

During the recent release of its financial report leading mobile service provider, Safaricom said it had recorded a 75 per cent increase in demand for home fibre broadband in March and April.
According to Fiona Asonga, the CEO at the Kenya Internet Exchange Point and the Telecommunications Service Providers Association of Kenya, Internet traffic has increased significantly since the start of the epidemic.

“We have seen an increase of traffic at the Kenya Internet Exchange Point (KIXP) from an average of 7.5Gps to 22.6Gps,” she said. “The increase has been on local content as well as international video content and financial services.”
“We are excited to be collaborating with our 2Africa partners on the most comprehensive subsea cable that will serve the continent,” said Najam Ahmad, Vice President, Network Infrastructure at Facebook.

“2Africa is a major element of our ongoing investment in Africa to bring more people online to faster internet. We’ve seen first-hand the positive impact that increased connectivity has on communities.”