The technology giant Facebook announced Monday that it will extend its undersea cable in Africa with direct links to Angola, Nigeria, the Seychelles and the Comoros, seeking to increase Internet speed on the continent.
According to financial news agency Bloomberg, Facebook, Chinese telecoms company China Mobile and MTN Group will build a more comprehensive undersea cable than originally planned, which joins the recently announced link to the Canary Islands, bringing a direct connection to 35 countries instead of the 26 initially announced.
“The significant investment by Facebook in 2Africa leverages other investments we have made on the continent, including infrastructure investments in South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRCongo],” according to a statement from the company, quoted by Bloomberg.
The technologies Facebook and Alphabet, owner of Google, underpin 80% of the most recent investments in transatlantic connections, seeking to take advantage of the growth in demand for fast data transfer that is used in all segments, from medical consultations to streaming movies or exchanging messages on social networks.
The investments in recent years, which amount to almost $1 billion, follow on from the $20 billion invested by telephone companies in submarine fibre-optic networks following the strong expansion of technology companies in the 1990s.
Production of the first segments of this underwater infrastructure has already begun in the United States of America, and will include a 37,000 kilometre cable to connect Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
The 2Africa link should be operational in 2024 and will guarantee more than all the current capacity of all the cables serving the African continent, the statement quoted by the financial information agency said.
