NEWS
e & Carrier & Wholesale activates 2Africa submarine cable landing at UAE SmartHub
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& Carrier & Wholesale Services( C & WS), an international wholesale arm of global technology group e &, has announced the successful landing and integration of the 2Africa submarine cable system at its carrier-neutral SmartHub data centre in the UAE.
Building on the completion of the core 2Africa system announced by the consortium, this milestone brings the cable’ s capacity into service locally, strengthening the UAE’ s international connectivity infrastructure and reinforcing its position as a global digital hub.
Spanning approximately 45,000 kilometres, 2Africa is the world’ s largest submarine cable system, connecting Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East and plays a vital role in meeting the region’ s rapidly increasing international bandwidth requirements.
Nabil Baccouche, Group Chief Carrier and Wholesale Officer at e &, said:“ The successful landing and integration of 2Africa is a strategic achievement that reinforces e &’ s role as a trusted global connectivity partner. By bringing this system into service in the UAE, we are strengthening international resilience and enabling our partners and customers to scale with confidence as demand for high-capacity, low-latency connectivity continues to grow.”
The landing of this state-of-the-art subsea cable enhances network capacity, resilience and latency performance, supporting growing demand for data, cloud services and Digital Transformation across the UAE and beyond. By diversifying international routes, the 2Africa system ensures more reliable and seamless connectivity for carriers, content providers, enterprises and consumers.
Ethio telecom, Djibouti Telecom and Sudatel Group sign Tripartite Agreement for the Horizon Fiber Initiative
Ethio telecom, Djibouti Telecom and Sudatel Group have signed a landmark tripartite strategic agreement under the Horizon Fiber Initiative, marking a major milestone in regional digital integration through the deployment of a high-capacity, cross-border multi-terabit optical fibre infrastructure.
The agreement establishes a resilient terrestrial fibre corridor connecting international submarine cable landing stations in Djibouti, traversing Ethiopia and extending to Sudan’ s landing stations. This route creates a scalable, secure and diversified regional connectivity pathway linking East Africa to global digital networks.
Designed to enhance international bandwidth capacity and strengthen network resilience and redundancy, the Horizon Fiber Initiative supports growing demand for data, cloud services, hyperscale connectivity and cross-border data flows driven by Africa’ s accelerating digital economy.
For Ethio telecom, the initiative supports its Next Horizon: Digital & Beyond 2028 strategy, reinforcing its ambition to evolve into a regional digital connectivity leader. Horizon Fiber strengthens Ethiopia’ s position as a strategic digital transit hub while underpinning advanced services including cloud, data centres and enterprise solutions.
Through collaboration, the three operators will leverage complementary infrastructure and expertise to deliver multiterabit fibre capacity, low-latency international connectivity, diversified cross-border routes and improved service reliability for operators, enterprises and content providers.
The CEOs of the partnering organisations highlighted the initiative as a reflection of regional cooperation and innovationled partnerships, supporting economic growth and digital inclusion. Building on a Memorandum of Understanding signed in December 2024, the Horizon Fiber Initiative represents a tangible outcome of shared ambition and positions the region as a trusted gateway in the global digital economy.
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