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Facebook to expand undersea cable coverage in Africa

02 Sep 2021, 03:04 pm
Financial Nigeria
Facebook to expand undersea cable coverage in Africa

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Just 40 percent of people in the continent of 1.2 billion people have internet access, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.


Facebook has said that it is expanding an already announced 23,000-mile undersea cable project circling the entire continent of Africa and connecting to Europe.

The cable, called 2Africa, was designed to link 26 countries including Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bloomberg reported last month that Facebook has added Angola and the Indian Ocean island countries of Seychelles and Comoros to the project.

Facebook is working on the project alongside Chinese state-owned telecom company China Mobile and South Africa’s MTN Group.

The expansion of the 2Africa project is part of Facebook’s broader goal of bringing Africans online. Just 40 percent of people in the continent of 1.2 billion people have internet access, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

In a 2016 attempt to bring internet to Africa, Facebook created a $200 million satellite that was designed to beam down internet to the continent. The company hired SpaceX to launch the satellite — but the rocket blew up on the launchpad in a massive fireball.


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