Marked by a ceremony in Djibouti, the cable's landing was attended by Radwan Abdillahi Bahdon, Minister of Communications in charge of Posts and Telecommunications, as well as Djibouti Telecom representatives and representatives from the Smart Africa Alliance.
Djibouti Telecom plans to host the 2Africa cable in its new cable landing station which is under construction. According to the company the facility will span three levels, "with the latest technology, offering unparalleled operational efficiency and the security to accommodate multiple cables".
In related news, March 2022 saw 2Africa complete its first landing in Genoa, Italy where Vodafone is serving as cable landing partner and connecting directly into a newly built data centre, Equinix GN1.
The 2Africa consortium is also partnering with a local Italian operator to develop a new terrestrial route connecting the Genoa cable landing station directly to carrier neutral data centres in Milan.
Announced back in 2020, Africa is a 45,000km system, making the world's longest subsea cable system, connecting Africa, Asia and Europe. It is being built by a consortium comprised of Meta (formerly Facebook), China Mobile International, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC, due for completion in 2024.
The SDM-enabled, 180Tbps the system was designed and manufactured by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and will boast up to 16 fibre pairs.
Last year, the consortium announced an extension to the system to the Arabian Gulf, Pakistan and India, referred to as the 2Africa PEARLS branch, adding vital landing locations in Oman (Barka), UAE (Abu Dhabi and Kalba), Qatar (Doha), Bahrain (Manamah), Kuwait (Kuwait), Iraq (Al-Faw), Pakistan (Karachi), India (Mumbai), and a fourth landing in Saudi Arabia (Al Khobar).
That same year, the consortium also confirmed plans to add four additional branches to the Seychelles, the Comoros Islands, and Angola, as well as a new landing in south-east Nigeria.
