2Africa is a large-scale submarine cable laying project that Facebook intends to build to provide the Internet for 37,000 kilometers across Africa. Internet use is natural in developed countries, but there are still many places in the world where the Internet environment is not sufficient. There are even places like Cuba that use the Internet of human resources to carry people with USB sticks.
Facebook has long developed the Wi-Fi drone Aquila, which provides a network in the air while continuing to fly through the stratosphere using solar power to provide Internet access to areas where no Internet access is available. However, Akuri faced numerous challenges, and development ended in 2018.
However, Facebook’s attempts to bring the Internet to a world that is not connected to the Internet are not over. In 2019, there were reports that a new drone flight test had begun, and on May 13 this year, it was announced that large-scale submarine cables have begun to improve African Internet connectivity.
The African continent is one of the world’s most unconnected places. Of the 1.3 billion people, about a quarter of the people can connect to the Internet. 2Africa, a submarine cable project initiated by Facebook, connects 23 countries including Africa, Europe and the Middle East, and the cable length is 37,000 km. As of May 2020, capacity is three times the total network of submarine cables used in Africa. After completion, it will provide the necessary internet space and reliability across Africa, and will also complement the rapidly growing capacity demand in the Middle East.
The construction of the submarine cable is carried out by Nokia-owned Alcatel Submarine Network, but the amount of funds Facebook invested in Alcatel was not disclosed. In addition, to increase network capacity, cables will use aluminum conductor fibers instead of copper.
Facebook said that 2Africa is part of an effort to expand its global network infrastructure, and that it is working with partners around the world to build submarine fiber optic cables that lead the industry in terms of scale, capacity and flexibility. Related information can be found here .