Google has landed its first submarine cable in Togo, the first nation in West Africa to introduce commercial fifth-generation mobile services. The Equiano subsea internet cable is part of Google’s $1 billion program to build digital capacity on the continent
The conduit will, later this year, land in Nigeria, Namibia and South Africa, linking Africa to Europe via Portugal.
The Equiano cable is expected to help Togo double internet speeds by 2025 and reduce Internet prices by about 14%. Once operational, the cable will offer 20 times more bandwidth than any other country in West Africa, and help create almost 37,000 new jobs by 2025, according to research from Africa Practice and Genesis Analytics commissioned by Google.
By increasing internet speeds, Togo also hopes to attract new businesses, such as data centers, and help grow the country’s startup industry, Togolese Digital Economy Minister Cina Lawson says.
Elsewhere, Facebook – backed undersea cable, dubbed the 2Africa cable, is set to the the longest in the world upon completion, with the firm saying the cable will now extend to over 45,000 kilometers. This comes with the addition of nine landings collectively dubbed the 2Africa Pearls. The subsea cable will directly connect three continents — Africa, Europe and Asia.
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