The demand for broadband connectivity is accelerating in Africa. Telecommunications operators are strengthening their broadband infrastructures to better respond to this.
The telecommunications operator Sonatel, the Senegalese subsidiary of the French group Orange, announced on Tuesday July 19 that it had won the market for the connection station in Senegal to a 5 th submarine fiber optic cable. This is 2Africa from Meta. The announcement was made during the first visit to Africa of the new CEO of the Orange group, Christel Heydemann.
It was in May 2020 that the 2Africa project was officially launched in response to the explosion in demand for broadband connectivity in Africa. It was originally announced in February by a consortium made up of Meta (then Facebook), China Mobile International, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, STC, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC. The construction and installation of the infrastructure are carried out by the company Alcatel Submarine Networks.
The new cable will be added to the 4 infrastructures of this type already operated by Sonatel in Senegal. These are SAT-3, ACE, Atlantis-2 and SHARE. Added to this is the Sonatel data center in Rufisque, which the company recently modernized by adding a second room. These investments are part of the Orange subsidiary’s ambition to provide the highest quality services in Senegal. The company aims to bring 4G everywhere in Senegal by the end of 2023.
45,000 kilometers long, 2Africa is scheduled to be operational in 2023/2024. Its commissioning should enable Sonatel to considerably increase its capacity in terms of broadband connectivity to meet growing demand. The new infrastructure should also facilitate the deployment of 4G, 5G and fixed broadband access.
One comment
kebba kabba bojang
July 21, 2022 at 12:56 pm
This is very important development for Senegal and the region and indeed an action in the right direction. In the same vane, Gambia is also working to join in any of the upcoming west Africa cable to have a second option to ACE and we need information as to the possibility to join this cable.
Kindly help me with the contact person for this project for possible discussion.