The largest submarine cable system in the world, the 2Africa, which landed in Angola last week, is expected to start operating only in 2024 and was designed for a data transmission capacity of up to 180 tera bits per second.
According to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Unitel, Aguinaldo Jaime, speaking in the act that marked the landing of the cable on the edge of Cacuaco beach, by the Minister of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication, Mário Augusto da Silva Oliveira, this projected capacity will be greater than the total combined capacity of all submarine cables that currently serve Africa.
"We came to Cacuaco beach to witness the landing of the Submarine Cable “2ÁFRICA” in Angola, the cable that circumnavigates the coast of Africa and will interconnect several African countries, Europe and the Middle East, along its more than 45 thousand kilometers and will serve a region in which about 3 billion people live", said.
BUT: Government will continue to invest in infrastructure to ensure a technological future
Aguinaldo Jaime said that the “2África” submarine cable began to be implemented in 2020 and starts from the United Kingdom, goes down the west coast of the African continent to South Africa and returns to Europe, ending in Spain, along the east coast of Africa, passing through through the Middle East.
"This very important international telecommunications infrastructure is being implemented by a consortium of several international operators, with Unitel, through the partnership it established with Meta (Facebook), the only Angolan operator to have joined it. Within the scope of the consortium, Unitel is responsible for creating the conditions for mooring and operating the connection of the “2Africa” cable to Angola. For this purpose, in addition to the mooring point, where we are located, in Praia de Cacuaco, we have already started the construction of the station where the equipment will be housed, which will support the operation of the cable and which will be located at the entrance to the city of Cacuaco, there are about 3 kilometers from this location. The station will be completed in the 1st quarter of 2024”, he added.
He stressed that Unitel's participation in "2África" represents an investment of around US$52 million, which will bring enormous benefits to the country by ensuring, for at least another 25 years, Angola's international communications, through the points of presence that the Unitel will implement in London and Cape Town.
"We would like to remind you that Unitel now has more than 14 thousand kilometers of optical fiber throughout the country, which proves to be a true engine of technological development, by providing a network capable of supporting voice, data and Internet access services with quality and reliability, essential factors for the success and excellence of services provided to customers”, he indicated.
