Facebook
and a group of telecom companies will extend its  subsea cable
project, which is one of the world’s largest, to four more countries, a joint statement confirmed on Monday. The
project is being introduced in Africa earlier than initially planned, as the
companies plan to bring a new landing point to south-east Nigeria.

The other
three countries where internet connectivity will be extended are Seychelles,
the Comoros Islands and Angola, Reuters reported. This comes after the companies recently
announced the addition of the Canary Islands to the project.

The project,
called 2Africa, includes South Africa’s MTN GlobalConnect, Facebook, Mauritius-based
infrastructure provider WIOCC, China Mobile International, France’s Orange SA,
Saudi Arabia’s stc, Telecom Egypt and Vodafone.

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The
consortium have chosen Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to deploy the new “branches”,
which will increase the number of 2Africa landings to 35 across 26 countries. The
extension will further boost connectivity in and around Africa, the company
added.

“Most of
the subsea route survey activity is now complete. ASN has started manufacturing
the cable and building repeater units in its factories in Calais and Greenwich
to deploy the first segments in 2022,” the companies said.

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The group
launched the cable in May 2020 to connect those countries in Africa, the Middle
East and Europe. It is expected to go live in late 2023.

Subsea
cables are the backbone of the world’s internet, accounting for over 99% of the
global traffic.

Big economies
in Africa have a large and fast-growing population of internet users with
growth in internet fueled by rapidly expanding mobile broadband networks and
more affordable phones.

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However,
with a population of just above 1.3 billion, Africa is still a laggard in
internet connectivity, with average mobile internet users at around 26%, in
contrast to a global average of 51%.

The
companies have said 2Africa will be the world’s largest subsea cable project.