Subsea Cables & Internet Infrastructure

It turns out that the CS Sovereign, a Global Marine ship whose home port is Portland, UK, is sailing down the West African cost to Abidjan to fix WACS. Why was the Sovereign chosen when it is so far away? Every cable system has one or two storage depots where fibre is kept for repairs. WACS spare fiber and other repair supplies are kept at Brest, France. Now Orange Marine has a cable ship, the well known Léon Thévenin, at anchor in Capetown, South Africa. But if the supply depot is in Europe, a nearby cable ship becomes useless. It all makes eminent sense because WACS connects both the UK and Lisbon to West Africa and the cable was laid from the UK to Lisbon and down the West African coast. So the starting point for deployment was Europe and hence that is where the spare supplies are located. However, this is a severe logistical mistake since most WACS outages occur between Senegal and Congo, not in European waters.

The cable ship repair permit has been granted. It is expected to arrive off Abidjan on July 22nd. The 2Africa cable will be the first repaired despite its outage being limited to the Cote d'Ivoire branch. WACS repair is expected to begin at the month's end. The ASN Ile D'Ouessant cable ship left Capo Verde last week and will arrive in the Gulf of Guinea this Wednesday.

ISPs in Ghana are reporting their 2Africa waves are up and running. So 2Africa's main trunk appears untouched. Hence the Cote d'Ivoire outage must be due to a branching segment fault. It is thought a turbidity wave caused the damage. This is a powerful surge of water, debris, and mud that can wash away the sediment covering buried cables and snap them like toothpicks. I call it an underwater Tsunami. It is triggered by an undersea avalanche due to an earthquake or a flooding river like the Congo pouring into the Atlantic. For example, the 2006 Taiwanese earthquake caused a turbidity current that tore apart 22 cables off the country's Southeast coast. This current traveled several hundred kilometers and reached speeds as high as 72 kilometers an hour. It is not clear what caused the turbidity surge off Abidjan. What we do know is that there is a large subterranean cavern, Le Trou Sans Fond, at Abidjan's doorstep. It was likely involved.  The last few days Cote d'Ivoi...

This was initially diagnosed as a shunt fault, but the cable appears to be effectively severed with the approximate location of 9 kilometers from repeater 4 towards repeater 3. To the best of my knowledge this is 2Africa's first wet segment outage on the West African coast. No repair date is available at this time.

Abidjan clients on WACS report an outage began 4 AM local time today. Outage began with a severe drop of 385 volts. Investigation shows the fault lies in segment S3C between the first and second repeater on the Ivory Coast branching unit. So the outage should only affect Cote d'Ivoire. A ship has been dispatched to fix it. Two years ago four cables were severed off Abidjan due to a debris slide in the subterranean cavern known as Le Trou Sans Fond. Also a 2Africa outage started 1:30 PM Abidjan time. More information will be provided as it becomes available. First map below is 2Africa. Second is WACS. 

Mombasa Icolo 1/Djibouti CLS; $23,500 MRC; 3 Years. Protected backhaul to Djibiouti data center only $1,050 extra. 🙂  Mombasa Icolo 2/JB Terraco; $25,400 MRC; 3 Years. Backhaul protected.

The standard description is that 2Africa is a 16 fibre pair cable with 180 Tbps throughput. It comes right off the 2Africa website. That public figure is a bit misleading. Only the Mediterranean and Red Sea segments have 16 pairs. The all-important West Coast segment has 8. Now these fibre pairs should individually be capable of 20 Tbps or slightly more. So West Coast transmission capacity probably does total 180 Tbps. Indeed, the Mediterranean segment could easily exceed 320 Tbps. And the same for the yet unfinished Red Sea segment. Design Capacity By Segment A. Mediterranean Sea: 16. B. Red Sea: 16. Not finished due to hostilities. C. Red/East Africa: 7. D. Red Sea/India: 9. E. West Coast: 8.

 African subsea cable leased capacity prices have bottomed around $18K to $22K MRC per 100G per month for Equiano and 2Africa. Examples include Lisbon to Lagos and Ghana to Lagos. Prices are not going lower. First of all, Google kept some Equiano capacity for itself and Facebook kept 4 of 2Africa's 16 pairs for itself. Moreover, 2Africa lands in over 25 countries. So average capacity per country excluding Facebook is approximately 6 Tbps. That figure would fall further if the Red Sea segment is ever completed. Finally, all consortium members for both cables are keeping some capacity for their own Internet backbones. Corroborating evidence that prices will remain stable is that consortium carriers are reluctant to sell wavelength or spectrum IRUs. Carriers sell IRUs for two reasons. The first is network asset portfolio rebalancing. If a carrier has plentiful capacity on cable X with relatively low pricing, it might sell an IRU to obtain capacity on cable Y that it can ...

Few details are available at this point. It has been clear to me for some time that the 2Africa and Equiano networks are insufficient to meet growing African Internet traffic. This reflects two factors. First, the limited number of Equiano landings: Togo, Nigeria, Namibia, and South Africa. Secondly, the 2Africa has only 180 Tbps of capacity, but serves 17 African states. Moreover, it also serves many Middle East countries, Pakistan, and India. The Nigerian government is concerned that the country lacks subsea resiliency. Published reports hint at its desire for a new route, but it is not obvious what it would be. One possibility is a direct US-Nigeria link perhaps connecting Atlanta or Ashburn Equinix to Lagos. Or perhaps a Nigeria to France or Spain direct link. Bloomberg article on subject: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-23/nigeria-in-advanced-talks-with-google-for-new-undersea-cable. 

1. Capacity shortages will develop within 2 years because Equiano and 2Africa are insufficient given the vast number of countries they serve. Only South Africa and Nigeria have adequate capacity. But for many countries 2Africa is the only truly modern and reliable system with good long haul pricing and reasonable cross connect fees. Now 2Africa is 180 Tbps, but serves at least 30 countries in total. Even if we exclude the Pearls component, we are looking at Egypt, Italy, France, Portugal, UK, Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, South Africa, Angola, the two Congos, Gabon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Togo, and Senegal. I count 27 in the core African network. Divide by 180/27=6.7 Tbps. Capacity shortages are almost guaranteed particularly given some migration from the older, less reliable systems with their high cross connect charges to 2Africa and Equiano. One factor that may alleviate stress on the telecom...

LS1/PAIX Accra; 100G; Three Years; $25K MRC. London/Lagos; 10G; Three Years; $10K MRC. 2Africa cross connect charges are limited to $150 per month and the cable's reliability will be much better than SAT-3, MainOne, WACS, and ACE. It is buried deeper with better designed back haul and avoids the Congo and the Le Trou Sans Fond canyons. Note the Red Sea segment from Egypt to Oman is incomplete. There is no schedule for its completion.

- 2Africa is much more expensive than Equiano. The 2Africa 100G pricing is $25K and above excluding tails for Lisbon to Lagos. In contrast, Equiano 100G pricing is below $20K now. Similarly, Equiano 10G pricing gravitates around $5K versus $10K on the same route for 2Africa.  The reason for this disparity is that the 144 Tbps Equiano cable primarily serves South Africa, Portugal, and Nigeria. In contrast, the 180 Tbps 2Africa network serves over 30 countries and Facebook kept 4 of the 16 pairs for itself. Note that the 2Africa map does not include the Pearls extension of 2Africa to the Persian Gulf, Pakistan, and Mumbai.  Another sign of the impending capacity crunch is the unwillingness of 2Africa consortium members to sell IRUs. An IRU is a long term capacity sale ranging typically dffrom 10 years to life of system. Carriers will not sell IRUs if they expect future capacity shortages or think they are likely. Many of these carriers have transit backbones that they must keep ...

1. The UK, South Africa, and Portugal POPs are passing traffic today. A. UK POPs include Slough Equinix for most 2Africa consortium members. Many are also at Telehouse London.  B. Lisbon includes both LS1 & the new Altice facility. C. South Africa: CT1, CT2. 2. Raxio is the main 2Africa POP in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Hand offs also include the CLS itself. Originally the planned PAIX data center was intended to be the main 2African POP. However, it is either cancelled or delayed. Not clear at this moment as I have received conflicting opinions.  3. 2Africa Lagos POPs include MDXI and also new Digital Realty site. The former Medallion DC where most 2Africa SLTEs will be housed only opens its doors in late September. So Lagos may not be live til late 2025. 4. There are plans to extend 2Africa from the Pointe Noir and Muanda cable landing stations to Kinshasa OADC. It will take the form of a fibre ring. The Kinshasa back haul fibre was part of the original 2Africa network plan. ...

1. 2Africa is vastly superior to the older African cables in cost, performance, and footprint. It has 9x the capacity of WACS or ACE. Cross connects are capped at $150 per month at the CLS and most hand offs are at carrier neutral facilities. The cable is buried 2 meters in deep in shallow coastal waters (1000 meters or less in depth) versus 1 meter or less for older systems. It bypasses all known danger spots such as subsea canyons with their debris slides. 2. Sénégal A. ONIX is the main 2Africa POP in Dakar. Note that consortium members are free to place their SLTEs where they desire in Dakar. So other sites may also be on-net. The Dakar CLS just houses the power feed equipment. B. ONIX just opened its doors to customers so expect 2Africa service to begin near year's end. C Sénégal is a significant challenge for capacity buyers because at least one major consortium player elected to skip it. D. I have great 100G pricing for the LS1 to ONIX route at $17.5K a month on a 1 year term...

1. The West coast network from Lisbon and London to South Africa should be all activated by year's end. 2. Note that 2Africa is an open cable system which means each fibre pair and spectrum owner is responsible for their SLTEs. So it quite possible that consortium member X is ready today whereas member Y might be RFS only in December. 3. RFS Guidelines A. London, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa will be RFS at the beginning of September. B. Côte d'Ivoire should be live a month later. C. Senegal is at least 2 to 3 months from launch and could be as late Christmas. 4. Buying Guidelines A. I expect the combined impact of 2Africa and Equiano to drive Lisbon/Lagos 100G market pricing below $20K. On this route I recommend 1 year contracts. B. In Senegal, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and DRC you should do long term contracts because there is no guarantee that 2Africa will permanently lower pricing. Short term the cable will do so. But it is least 2 to 5 years before another modern cable lan...

 2Africa; Senegal/Portugal; 100G; $18.5K; 2 Years. WACS; Ivory Coast/Portugal; 10G; $8,250; 3 Years. 2Africa; Nigeria/South Africa; 100G; $24,750; 1 Year. Equiano; Nigeria/South Africa; 100G; $20K; 1 Year. Equiano; Nigeria/Portugal; 100G; $19.5K; 2 Year. 2Africa; Ghana/Nigeria; 100G; $23.5K; 1 Year. 2Africa; Ivory Coast/Portugal; 10G; $10,500; 1 Year. 2Africa; Ivory Coast/Portugal; 100G; $33.5K; 3 Year. Remarks: 2Africa CLS cross connects are $150 max. WACS cross connect charges are five digit.

***It is worth emphasizing that the DRC 2Africa CLS is a carrier neutral facility where all clients are treated equally with non-discriminatory and cost-based pricing and consortium-imposed performance standards. Moreover, there are several diverse fibre routes from the CLS to Kinshasa, which has several new carrier neutral data centers. The DRC market could be particularly interesting as it traditionally been a hell hole for telecom carriers. This means wholesale ISPs can sell at high transit prices. ***The other Congo (Brazzaville) is also on-net for 2Africa. And I can get you fibre transport across the river at wholesale prices to the DRC. 🙂 ***Special Note: ACR2, a Digital Realty data center in Accra, Ghana, is where most 2Africa capacity carriers keep their SLTEs.

***Senegal is the one of the most challenging on-net 2Africa countries. 1. Sonatel appears to have a monopoly on Dakar metro fibre. This spells trouble. 2. Sonatel's landline infrastructure monopoly may be one reason many 2Africa consortium members declined capacity into Senegal, despite its strategic location as the natural Northwest Africa telecom hub. Another reason might be their lack of mobile operations in that country as Senegal is a small market. 3. ONIX data center is the place to be in Senegal. Carrier neutral and on-net for 2Africa. Most African ISPs coming to me for advice plan to make ONIX their home. 4. I expect 100G pricing to be high due to the dearth of capacity. Figure low 30s for 100Gs to Europe and upper 20s for 100Gs to West African countries. ***Ghana is much friendlier. Many 2Africa carriers are on-net at the CLS and also the very popular PAIX data center. In fact, I know one that has built a ring from the CLS to PAIX reflecting strong demand for the latter. ...

First Point: The Portugal and Spanish grids are tightly integrated with limited power connector to the rest of Europe. Solar and wind play a big role and both power sources suffer from what is known as frequency instability. Solar and wind generated power is much more volatile than traditional power sources. Traditional power generators have angular momentum inertia. It takes a while to up or lower the power due to the inertia in the spinning components. A natural gas turbine takes a few minutes to spin up. A nuclear reactor an hour to lower or increase output by 10% (French reactors do load following). Solar and wind create very volatile power fluctuations that can easily trigger a circuit breaker. In an isolated grid if a circuit breaker is triggered, the power in the remaining active part of the grid increases. This triggers more circuit breakers and usually brings down the entire grid. 2. The consequence of the first point is that avoiding a repeat of the Iberian Penisula outage re...

What most people don't realize is that the following cables have not threaded the Red Sea yet due to the threat of Houthi missile attacks: 1. 2Africa. 2. Africa-1. 3. Blue Raman. 4. IEX. 5. SWM6. It is likely that none of these cables go live this year (2Africa Marseille/Mombasa segment among others ). When I ask industry insiders whether the Red Sea segments for these cables are finished, I get the roar of silence. The impending capacity drought reflects the failure of subsea cable designers and senior carrier management to take seriously their over-reliance on the Red Sea. Even Blue-Raman, which bypasses Egypt, traverses the Red Sea before landing near the Jordanian Aqaba data center. It is time for the telecom industry to work with Saudi Arabia to build routes that completely bypass the Red Sea and hit water on Israel's coast. Even it means neglecting Djibouti. Carrier culture is not innovative. Never has been. Technology comes from the network vendors like Ciena or Infinera...