Business organizations and residents within the Western Cape
area of South Africa will soon experience a faster, more reliable, and
uninterrupted internet connection, thanks to the landing of a 45 000km subsea
cable in Yzerfontein and Duynefontein, South Africa by MTN GlobalConnect, MTN South
Africa together with 2Africa
consortium, which includes China
Mobile International, Meta, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, center3, Telecom Egypt,
Vodafone, and WIOCC.
The 2Africa subsea cable connection which is expected to go
live in 2023, will lay the foundation for improved global internet access,
connecting people and continents. Once live, it will play a big part in
delivering much-needed capacity in Africa from Europe, the Middle East, and
Asia. The 2Africa landing is one of several cable landings taking place across
46 locations in 33 countries.
MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph
Mupita in a remark noted that a strategic partnership with the 2Africa
consortium will help MTN Group accelerate and deepen internet adoption and
socio-economic progress across the African continent, Data traffic across the
African market is expected to grow between four and five-fold over the next 5
years, so we need infrastructure and capacity to meet the level of growth and
demand,” he said.
"Our target, which is underpinned by MTN’s Ambition 2025
strategy, is to roll out a total of 135 000 km for proprietary fibre by 2025,
generating up to US$ 1 billion in revenue. Entrenching MTN as the number one
Africa fibre player, by building subsea and terrestrial scalable capacity and
resilience. This cable landing adds to another milestone to the digital
railroads we are building around Africa, making telecommunications accessible
and available," he added.
The CEO of MTN GlobalConnect, Frederic Schepens also
expressed excitement about the 2Africa subsea project and explained that the
initiative complements MTN terrestrial strategy to connect African countries to
each other and to the rest of the world. "We are building infrastructure
assets to meet the explosive growth in data traffic and accelerate the digital
economy on the continent, by creating a pan-African fibre railroad driving
affordable connectivity," he noted.
He stated that “We are proud of
the progress made on our journey and of the key role we are playing in
providing South Africans and the rest of Africa with the benefits of a
modern connected life."
The
2Africa subsea cable system will support the western and eastern sides of
Africa, once complete in 2023 and 2024 respectively. This means that South
African service providers can acquire capacity in carrier-neutral data centres
or open-access cable landing stations on a fair and equitable basis. This will
support the development of a healthy internet ecosystem by facilitating
improved internet accessibility for businesses and consumers alike.
MTN
GlobalConnect – which is the 2Africa landing party in Duynefontein and
Yzerfontein – has partnered with MTN South Africa to complete the landing on
South African soil. The Yzerfontein landing will support the 2Africa West cable
and the MTN South Africa landing station in Duynefontein will support the
2Africa East cable.
The
cable, with a design capacity of up to 180 TBps. on key parts of the system,
will deliver much-needed internet capacity, reliability, and improved internet
performance across large parts of Africa; supplement the fast-growing capacity
demand in the Middle East; and underpin the further growth of 4G, 5G, and fixed
broadband access for millions of people.
We
are proud to form part of a consortium which is aligned to delivering on
our Ambition 2025 strategy: Leading digital solutions for Africa’s
progress, by investing in connectivity to improve global economic
growth, while uplifting the livelihoods of many in South Africa and the rest of
Africa.
By:
Kanto Okanta
