The MTN Group Africa is planning to build a $320 million inland fibre cable to connect 10 countries.
The Johannesburg-based firm, through its MTN GlobalConnect unit and the Africa50 infrastructure investment agency, will start building the East2West link in the fourth quarter, MTN said in a statement.
The company said the project will add about 20,000 kilometres of new cable and interconnect over 100,000 kilometres of fibre.
The Big Picture
MTN is in the process of carving out its infrastructure wholesale firm GlobalConnect, which is being re-branded as Bayobab and plans to roll out a total of 135,000 kilometres of fibre by 2025, generating as much as $1 billion in revenue.
Africa needs at least 500,000 more kilometres of fibre optic cables, according to MTN.
Wireless carriers and US tech giants including Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook are also heavily investing in efforts to provide better connections to the continent’s young, fast-growing and tech-savvy population.
What Happens Next
The new MTN pipes will be constructed in three phases and run through countries including Kenya, Nigeria and Congo.
The fibre will significantly speed up services such as video streaming and cloud computing once complete, with the last stage expected to be ready in 2025.
Source: MyBroadband
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