Africa’s first submarine fibre-optic cable linking it directly to Australia is in the process of being installed.

Dubbed Umoja, which means unity in Swahili, the cable route starts in Kenya and travels overland through Rwanda, DRC, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, reports Techcrunch. From South Africa, a submarine cable is being laid to Perth, Australia.

Liquid Technologies, a subsidiary of pan-African tech firm Cassava Technologies, has already laid the terrestrial cable, while Google has started work on the channelling for the submarine cable to Australia.

The project is part of the Africa Connect initiative, which supports the roll-out of high-quality stable internet linking the continent to the rest of the world.

Google is also responsible for the privately funded 15 000 km Equiano subsea cable linking Europe, from Portugal, to West Africa’s coast. The Equiano cable went live in 2022. The company also opened its cloud data centre in Johannesburg at the beginning of 2024.

News of the Umoja project follows closely on submarine cable outages that largely cut off East Africa from the rest of the world.

Based on the average time it takes to lay a cable of this nature, TechCrunch estimates Umoja will be open to internet traffic in 2026.

Kenyan President William Ruto welcomed the project: ‘This initiative is crucial in ensuring the redundancy and resilience of our region’s connectivity to the rest of the world, especially in light of recent disruptions caused by cuts to sub-sea cables.

‘By strengthening our digital backbone, we are not only improving reliability but also paving the way for increased digital inclusion, innovation, and economic opportunities for our people and businesses.’

27 March 2024
Image: Unsplash