Your Internet Will Become Faster, Cheaper and More Reliable, Thanks to Meta’s New Subsea Cable

By Epiphanus Obia

Meta (parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) has finished building 2Africa, a huge undersea cable that circles the continent and connects Africa to Europe, the Middle East and South Asia. The company says the project will greatly improve internet speed, price and reliability for millions of people.

The cable is 45,000 kilometres long, making it the biggest open-access subsea cable ever built for Africa. It runs through 33 countries and lands in 46 locations, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.

2Africa is built to carry 168 terabits of data per second, which is more capacity than all the existing African subsea cables combined. Meta says this is enough speed to stream 36 million HD movies at once without buffering.

This increase in capacity means your internet could load faster, stay stable during peak hours and cost less over time. With more bandwidth available, providers will no longer need to fight for limited capacity, which usually makes data expensive.

The project is led by Meta in partnership with MTN’s Bayobab, Vodafone Group, Center3, Orange, China Mobile International, Telecom Egypt and WIOCC. Regional players like MainOne and Bharti Airtel also helped with parts of the system.

Because the cable has an open-access design, every network operator can use it. This means MTN, Glo, Airtel, 9mobile, and others will all be able to connect to it and improve their service.

The cable uses new technology like spatial division multiplexing, which simply means it can carry far more data through each fibre than older cables. It also uses wavelength switching to move data quickly to areas where demand is high.

To install the system, Meta used 35 offshore vessels, which together spent the equivalent of 32 years at sea. In some countries, engineers even used special diving tools to pull the cable onto the shore.

Faster and cheaper internet will help students download learning materials more easily and allow families to stream videos without delays. Small businesses will be able to use more online tools, while startups can build products that depend on cloud and AI systems.

Economists estimate that 2Africa could add up to $36.9 billion to Africa’s economy within a few years of becoming fully active. This is because better internet boosts trade, productivity and digital services.

The cable has currently gone live since September 2025, according to Meta, starting with the UK, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. When fully active, it will give Africa a stronger digital foundation to compete in the global internet economy