The construction of Africa-1 sub-sea cable, which is a fiber optic submarine telecommunications cable system connecting Africa, the Middle East and Europe has begun according to Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), a world leader in submarine network systems.
Backed up by a consortium made up of Etisalat, G42, Mobily, Pakistan Telecommunication Company and Telecom Egypt, with more companies expected to join in the near future, the 10,000 km sub-sea cable will deliver 8 fiber pairs to connect Africa and the Middle East eastward to Pakistan and westward to Europe.
The system will be equipped from day 1 with ASN 1620 Softnode transmission equipment, featuring high performance 200/300/400 Gb/s advanced coherent XWAV line cards. It is expected to be ready for operation by the end of next year but one.
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Countries that will be connected to the sub-sea cable
The system will initially have landings in Kenya, Djibouti, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France. It will also land in Sudan, cross Egypt through diverse new terrestrial routes on the way to France, and further connect other countries in the Mediterranean such as Algeria, Tunisia and Italy.
The following phase will include additional landings in Yemen and Somalia, as well as an extension from Kenya to South Africa with intermediate landings in Tanzania and Mozambique.
The Africa-1 sub-sea cable system will support Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and other Asian countries on their journey to digital transformation and will make it possible to transport ever-increasing volumes of traffic between the three continents
