The UAE's telecommunications giant e& Group announced on Monday that it will join "2Africa", one of the world's largest submarine cable joint projects, with the landing point located at the Kalba plot on the east coast of the emirate of Sharjah. e&Group will lead the development of the necessary infrastructure for this landing site and will be responsible for its maintenance for decades to come.
It is reported that e& Group was established in 1976 and is the first telecommunications company in the UAE. Its C&WS division (Carrier & Wholesale Services) is the largest Internet, mobile and regional center in the international cable system.
The chief operating officer and wholesale officer of e& Group said that joining "2Africa" will help improve the Internet experience of UAE users, and it can also absorb the knowledge and experience of outstanding project partners and integrate more cutting-edge technologies into the company's data center ecosystem "SmartHub".
According to the official website, "2Africa" was proposed in 2020 by a project team composed of China Mobile, U.S. Internet technology company Meta, African operator MTN Global Connect, French Telecom subsidiary Orange, Saudi Telecom STC, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC (East Coast Cable Consortium).
Note: Schematic diagram of the 2Africa project. The yellow dots are the completed landing points and the blue dots are the planned landing points.
Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), a subsidiary of Nokia Group, is responsible for the manufacturing and installation of submarine cables within the "2Africa" project.
At present, the project has extended 45,000 kilometers and connected 46 cable landing stations in 33 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe. Important landing points in the Middle East also include: Barqa in Oman, Doha in Qatar, Manama in Bahrain, and Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia.