A pan-African subsea cable is being planned in a project partially funded by Orange.
Orange Group, Canalink, GUILAB, International Mauritania Telecom, Orange Côte d'Ivoire, Sonatel, and Axian-owned Silver Links this month announced the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to initiate the Via Africa submarine cable project.
The consortium said the new system is part of a “shared ambition to develop international connectivity, to support traffic growth and to strengthen the resilience of networks across the African continent.”
Full details haven’t been shared, but the new system will run from the UK, France, and Portugal south along Africa’s Atlantic coastline, with planned landings on the Canary Islands, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and Nigeria, with potential extensions further south.
Consortium members are set to jointly finance a cable route study and are starting the procurement process for selecting a cable supplier.
“This project is particularly ambitious, as it will be one of the longest submarine cables to be deployed, involving numerous countries and partners,” Michaël Trabbia, CEO of Orange Wholesale, said on LinkedIn, calling the project “a true testament to our commitment to pushing technological boundaries and fostering multinational collaboration even further."
Canalink is a Spanish telecoms firm. Guilab is the state-owned subsea cable operator for Guinea (aka Guinea-Conakry). Sonatel is an Orange-owned operator in Senegal. Silver Links is a cable company launched in 2022 and owned by pan-African telecoms firm Axian Telecom.
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