2Africa: The World's Longest Submarine Cable at 45,000km
2Africa: The World's Longest Submarine Cable at 45,000km
Cable profile based on GeoCables monitoring data and TeleGeography submarine cable database At 45,000 kilometers, 2Africa is the longest submarine cable system ever built — longer than the circumference of the Earth (40,075 km). It circumnavigates the entire African continent, connecting 33 countries across Africa, Europe, and Asia in a single continuous cable system. When fully operational, it will carry more internet traffic to and from Africa than all existing cables combined.The Route
2Africa forms a giant loop around Africa with three main branches: Western Branch — UK → Portugal → Spain → Canary Islands → Senegal → Côte d'Ivoire → Ghana → Nigeria → Gabon → Angola → South Africa Eastern Branch — South Africa → Mozambique → Tanzania → Kenya → Somalia → Djibouti → Somalia → Yemen → Saudi Arabia → UAE → Qatar → Kuwait → Iraq → Egypt Northern Branch — Egypt → Greece → Italy → France, with extensions into the Indian Ocean to Seychelles, Comoros, and Madagascar The cable also includes a branch extending east to India, Pakistan, and Oman — making it truly a system connecting three continents in a single ring.Who Owns It
2Africa is funded by one of the most unusual consortia in submarine cable history: - Meta (Facebook) — primary funder and driver of the project - Vodafone — major European and African telco - Orange — dominant carrier in francophone Africa - China Mobile International — Chinese state carrier - MTN GlobalConnect — pan-African operator - stc (Saudi Telecom Company) - Telecom Egypt - WIOCC (West Indian Ocean Cable Company) The presence of Meta alongside Chinese state carrier China Mobile International is particularly notable — a rare instance of US Big Tech and Chinese state infrastructure sharing ownership of a critical communications asset.Why 2Africa Matters for the Continent
Africa has historically been severely underserved by submarine cable infrastructure. Before 2Africa: - West Africa's international bandwidth was dominated by SAT-3/WASC (2002, aging) and ACE (2012) - East Africa relied primarily on EASSy, SEACOM, and TEAMS - Many landlocked African countries depended on single-path routing through coastal neighbors 2Africa changes this by providing: - Redundancy: the ring topology means a cut anywhere still leaves the other path intact - Capacity: designed for 180 Tbps total capacity — transformational for a continent where current cables provide ~40 Tbps combined - Coverage: 33 landing countries, including several with their first-ever high-capacity international cableGeoCables Monitoring: 450 Health Checks
Our monitoring infrastructure has performed 450 health checks on 2Africa segments — the highest count of any cable in our database. The cable's 50 landing points across 34 countries give us exceptional coverage for RTT measurements across the African continent. Key monitored segments include: - UK → Portugal → Senegal: Atlantic approaches to West Africa - Djibouti → Oman → UAE: Red Sea and Gulf branches - South Africa → Mozambique → Tanzania: East African coastal segmentsThe Optical Wavelength Innovation
2Africa introduced undersea optical wavelength switching — a first for submarine cables. Traditional cables require traffic to surface at a landing station to be switched between directions. 2Africa can switch wavelengths (and therefore traffic paths) while still underwater, making the system more flexible and reducing the number of required landing stations for transit traffic.Current Status
2Africa has been deployed in segments since 2023, with full system completion expected by 2024–2025. Some segments are already carrying live traffic while others await shore-end construction. The complete ring, when operational, will fundamentally reshape internet economics across Africa — reducing bandwidth costs and improving connectivity for hundreds of millions of people.GeoCables monitors 2Africa landing segments across 34 countries. View cable health status →