Vodafone announces UK connection to the 2Africa subsea cable

Vodafone is one of many partners in the project, the others being Bayobab; Center3; China Mobile International; Meta; Orange; Telecom Egypt; and WIOCC. Indeed, this major engineering project is all the more impressive as a timely reminder that truly global collaboration is possible in these febrile times. The fact that US can Chinese interests are both represented is especially noteworthy, given their apparent determination to sabotage each other.

As you can see in the map below, 2Africa now runs from the UK to Spain, via almost the entire coast of the African continent. Not represented on that map is the branch that is being built connecting the network to India. When it’s completed, the cable system will be over 45,000 kilometres long and will connect 33 countries on three continents.

Vodafone owns dual fibre cables within 2Africa, which it has somewhat eccentrically named SHARP (System Honouring the Achievements of Rick Perry). Who is this legendary figure? He’s none other than Vodafone Group’s Head of Subsea Partnerships, so he has effectively named some cables after himself.

It also seems he couldn’t wait for the project to be finished before piping loads of data over his eponymous, 180 Tbps fibre. “2Africa is the world’s most ambitious cable system and will help to narrow the digital divide in Africa,” said Perry. “It’s great that the SHARP system is now online and serving customers and that it has landed in the UK.”

Specifically it now terminates at in Bude, Cornwall. The expectation is that it will enable greater digital commerce opportunities between the UK and Africa. Vodafone, which gained much of its expertise in this sort of thing when it acquired Cable & Wireless Worldwide in 2012, has been the landing partner for 11 locations so far, including in South Africa. It will also provide onward connectivity via two terrestrial fibre routes linking to the London area.