The Meta-led 2Africa subsea cable has landed in Carcavelos, Portugal.
At 45,000km, it is the world’s largest subsea cable network and will connect 33 countries with 46 landing points in Europe and Asia.
Vodafone and Altice Portugal were landing partners for this section of the cable which has landed at Altice’s cable landing station (CLS) in Carcavelos, to the west of Lisbon.
In a LinkedIn post, Vodafone said: “The mooring took place this week in Carcavelos, as part of the investment by an international consortium of which the Vodafone Group is a member.”
Altice said that the landing gave it a gateway to three different continents. COO, Alexander Freese, added on LinkedIn: “Once again, Altice Portugal is proving that we are by far the main submarine connectivity provider in Portugal, attracting additional foreign investment into the country.”
Industry observer Phillippe Devaux noted a several-month delay between completing the PLGR (Pre Lay Grapnel Run) in January and the landing, which was stalled until this week.
Meta, along with Telecom Egypt, China Mobile International, Bayobab, Orange, STC, Vodafone, and the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) originally announced the 2Africa cable in 2020. The longest subsea cable in the world, it is set to circle the African continent once complete later this year.
Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) is behind the deployment and manufacture of the 16-fiber pair, 180Tbps cable.
The laying of the East African portion started in late 2022 and landings on the west portion of the cable began in August 2023. The most recent landing was made in February 2024 in Kwa Ibo, Nigeria.
The cable is the fourth to land in Carcavelos – all at Altice’s CLS – with the other cables being the Pan-African Africa Coast to Europe (ACE); the domestic Bugio system; and the Columbus-III-Azores-Portugal and Continente-Madeira cables linking mainland Portugal to its island territories.
The Medusa Submarine Cable system will connect Carcavelos with Northern Africa in 2025 while the Olisipo domestic cable is also set to go live next year.
The Carcavelos CLS previously hosted the Atlantis-2 cable linking to Brazil and Argentina; it was turned off in 2022.
