Meta completes 2Africa, the longest subsea cable on the continent

On Techpoint Digest, we discuss Meta's completion of Africa's longest subsea cable, how this startup is changing how Nigerians celebrate, and how Kenya's regulator is backing off on SIM biometric panic.

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Victoria from Techpoint here,

Here’s what I’ve got for you today:

Meta completes the longest subsea cable 2Africa yet

This startup is changing how Nigerians celebrate

Kenya regulator walks back SIM biometric panic

Meta completes the longest subsea cable in Africa yet

Meta has just wrapped up the core infrastructure for 2Africa, the subsea cable system it’s been calling the world’s longest open-access network, and it’s honestly, it’s hard to argue. After nearly six years of work, the tech giant says the project’s completion marks a “defining moment” for Africa’s digital future and possibly the biggest connectivity upgrade the continent has ever seen.

This comes about two months after the tech giant said its subsea cable was getting close to going live in September 2025, with London, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa first on the list.

The cable, backed by a heavyweight consortium including MTN GlobalConnect, Vodacom/Vodafone, Orange, China Mobile International and others, stretches an insane 45,000 km. It links Europe, the Middle East and 16 African countries, landing in 46 locations globally. Meta says the system will deliver more capacity than all existing subsea cables serving Africa combined, with up to 180Tbps on key routes.

To get this done, Meta’s engineering team basically had to reinvent the limits of subsea tech. They deployed new spatial division multiplexing that doubles fibre capacity, added undersea wavelength switching for flexible bandwidth, and pushed out 35 offshore vessels for what amounted to 32 years’ worth of combined operations. In some remote areas, they even had to import specialised diving and burial equipment just to pull the cable ashore.

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But beyond the engineering flex, the economic impact is huge. RTI International estimates that 2Africa could add up to $36.9 billion to Africa’s GDP within two to three years of going live. Meta says it expects the ca...