Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain

Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Gran Canaria is the third-largest island of the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago situated in the Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of Africa. Its position places it at a natural crossroads between the European continent and the African coastline, and further along maritime routes toward the Middle East. One submarine cable currently lands on Gran Canaria, connecting the island directly into one of the longest submarine cable systems in the world.

That cable is the 2Africa system, which at 45,000 kilometres in length encircles much of the African continent and extends into the Middle East. Its landing on Gran Canaria draws the island into an intercontinental corridor linking it with countries spanning West Africa, East Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Arabian Gulf. The presence of this system positions Gran Canaria as a point on a wide-ranging southern and eastern arc that few individual landing points connect within a single cable.

Cables Landing at Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain

2Africa is a 45,000-kilometre submarine cable system with a ready-for-service date of 2024. In addition to Gran Canaria, the cable lands in Angola, Bahrain, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Djibouti, among other countries. The system links Gran Canaria into a corridor spanning West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, and the Middle East, making it one of the most geographically extensive submarine cable systems to touch Spanish territory.

Regional Context

Within Spain's submarine cable network of 34 cables across 46 landing points, Gran Canaria hosts one cable and ranks in the top 56 percent of Spanish landing points by cable count. Several other Spanish landing points carry greater cable diversity, including Alta Vista in the Canary Islands, Barcelona, Bilbao, Granadilla de Abona, Santa Cruz de La Palma, and Valencia, each of which hosts three cables. Among Canary Islands landing points specifically, Gran Canaria currently serves as a single-cable terminus while its island neighbours accommodate broader multi-cable connectivity.

Network Role

Gran Canaria functions as a single-cable terminus on the 2Africa system, connecting the island into a network that spans from the Atlantic coast of Europe southward through West and Central Africa, around the Horn of Africa, and into the Arabian Gulf via Djibouti and Bahrain. This gives the island a direct cable relationship with a set of countries — Angola, Bahrain, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Djibouti — that few other Spanish landing points reach through a single system.

While Gran Canaria does not yet match the multi-cable density of other Spanish landing points, its participation in the 45,000-kilometre 2Africa cable places it on one of the longest submarine cable systems connecting Europe and Africa. In the regional submarine cable graph, Gran Canaria contributes a direct Atlantic-to-African-and-Middle-Eastern link that reinforces the Canary Islands' broader role as a stepping-stone between Europe and the African continent.