STC Bahrain and regional digital hub Center3 have announced plans to land the 2Africa Pearls submarine cable system in Bahrain. The companies say they have now officially completed the marine survey to bring the cable to the country.
Center3 was launched in October 2022 to own the digital infrastructure assets owned by Saudi Arabia’s STC group, including data centres, subsea cables, international points of presence and internet exchange points.
Meta, along with Telecom Egypt, China Mobile International, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, STC, Vodafone, and the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC), announced the 2Africa cable in 2020.
At 45,000km it is the world's largest subsea cable. It will circle Africa, connecting 33 countries with 46 landing points across Africa, Europe, and Asia once it is complete in 2024. Alcatel Submarine Networks will manufacture and deploy the 180Tbps cable.
As the Data Centre Dynamics website explains, 2Africa Pearls is an extension to the original cable. It creates further landing points in Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia. STC and Center3 landed the 2Africa cable in Jeddah and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia last month.
Meanwhile, the 2Africa cable has landed in Mahajanga, Madagascar, where it is the fourth international cable to reach the island. It also landed, last week, in Maputo, Mozambique. It will be housed at data centre company icolo’s new facility in the city.
