2Africa Pearls Extends Subsea Cable Across Three Continents
Meta has announced a new segment of its 2Africa subsea cable system, called 2Africa Pearls, which adds landings across the Middle East and South Asia. When complete, the combined system will stretch more than 45,000 kilometers, making it the longest subsea cable deployment ever built.
The expansion builds on the original 2Africa project, first announced in 2020, which targets Africa's limited internet infrastructure. Only about a quarter of Africa's 1.3 billion people currently have internet access. The 2Africa system is designed to deliver nearly three times the total network capacity of all subsea cables currently serving the continent.
Reach and Capacity
The 2Africa Pearls branch adds new landing points in Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, India, and Saudi Arabia. This extends the system's overall reach to interconnect 33 countries across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.
With the Pearls extension, the cable system will provide connectivity to an additional 1.8 billion people on top of the 1.2 billion planned under the original 2Africa project. This brings the total addressable population to 3 billion people, roughly 36 percent of the global population.
According to Meta, the expansion responds to the growing reliance on internet access for work, education, and personal communication observed over the past two years. The company continues to invest in fiber-optic infrastructure as a foundation for economic and social development in regions where connectivity remains limited.
