2Africa Submarine Cable System
Longest subsea cable system ever built, circling the African continent across 45,000 km to Europe and Asia
Open it on the earth: cut a link, lose a siteWorkbook (DC Sim template v1.4)
The story
2Africa is the longest subsea cable system in history, measuring over 45,000 kilometers and encircling the entire continent of Africa while providing direct links to Southern Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. Backed by Meta, China Mobile International, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC, the system employs 16-pair SDM technology delivering up to 180 Tbps of nominal capacity. Landings span 46 locations across 33 nations, connecting hundreds of millions of people to high-capacity international Internet transit.
Notable
- Extends over 45,000 kilometers connecting 33 countries across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia.
- Designed with nominal capacity of up to 180 Tbps using 16 fiber pair space-division multiplexing.
- Funded by a global consortium led by Meta alongside African, European, and Asian telecom carriers.
- Includes the 2Africa Pearls extension connecting the Persian Gulf, Pakistan, and Mumbai.
Sites
| Code | Place | Role | Provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| MRS | Marseille, France | landing | Orange |
| GEN | Genoa, Italy | landing | Vodafone |
| PSD | Port Said, Egypt | landing | Telecom Egypt |
| MBA | Mombasa, Kenya | landing | Airtel / Telkom Kenya |
| CPT | Cape Town (Yzerfontein), South Africa | landing | MTN / WIOCC |
| LOS | Lagos, Nigeria | landing | MainOne / Meta |
| DXB | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | landing | e& |
| BOM | Mumbai, India | landing | Airtel |
Links
| From | To | Type | Capacity | Length | Year | Protected | Est. one-way latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GEN | MRS | submarine | 180 Tbps | 400 km | 2023 | no | ≈ 2.3 ms |
| MRS | PSD | submarine | 180 Tbps | 2,800 km | 2023 | no | ≈ 20.4 ms |
| PSD | MBA | submarine | 180 Tbps | 4,800 km | 2023 | no | ≈ 30.0 ms |
| MBA | CPT | submarine | 180 Tbps | 4,400 km | 2023 | no | ≈ 29.6 ms |
| CPT | LOS | submarine | 180 Tbps | 4,200 km | 2023 | no | ≈ 35.2 ms |
| PSD | DXB | submarine | 180 Tbps | 3,600 km | 2023 | no | ≈ 17.6 ms |
| DXB | BOM | submarine | 180 Tbps | 1,900 km | 2023 | no | ≈ 14.5 ms |
Latency marked ≈ is our estimate from the great-circle distance × 1.5 at 5 µs per km, not the operator's figure.
Sources
- 2Africa: Connecting Africa to the World · 2Africa Consortium · 2023-01-01
- Building 2Africa, a transformative subsea cable to serve Africa · Meta · 2020-05-14
Part of the open famous data centers dataset (CC BY 4.0). Updated 2026-10-15.
What is 2Africa Submarine Cable System famous for?
Longest subsea cable system ever built, circling the African continent across 45,000 km to Europe and Asia
How many sites and links does 2Africa Submarine Cable System have in this dataset?
8 sites and 7 links, of which 7 are recorded as not protected. Figures are from the public sources listed on the page.
Who operates 2Africa Submarine Cable System?
2Africa Consortium (Meta, China Mobile, MTN, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, WIOCC)