Facebook uncovered its 2Africa undersea cable project. The project will connect Europe and the Middle East. It will increase the bandwidth by 180 terabits per second. Speculations have it that it will be operational in 2023.
With the help of other established carriers, 2Africa will bring the cable’s connectivity to 16 African countries. Some countries which didn’t have direct access to international bandwidth will be lucky to have one courtesy of the 2Africa project.
The good thing is that 2Africa is not the only project. Google’s Equiano cable is also a significant project that will shine a light to Africa, With the two projects, the speed will be higher and the price low. Not to mention, the coverage will be beyond major cities.
The chief technologist of Liquid Telecom says; additional infrastructure and the competition that the connectivity brings along with it will have a significant impact on the continent. Ben Roberts sees this from a different angle. He doesn’t just recognize the additional capacity but its effects.
Facebook: Net Neutrality
There are a lot of concerns as far as net neutrality is concerned. This concern is raised by the fact that few net neutrality laws exist in the region compared to the United States. This problem had changed drastically since the first undersea cable connected the African continent nearly 20 years ago. Now Google and Facebook are the companies on the stage. Will these lead to anti-competitive behaviors? Bear in mind the few net neutrality laws that due exist in the region. It raises a lot of concern. Theoretically, one company could limit network access to another company to offer its ‘competitive advantage.’
However, Ba came clear on the issue and said that the project aims to improve Facebook’s products. He also added that any company could also use that to improve their products to the market. They didn’t design the project for a competitive advantage since everyone can access capacity and speed. That’s the most important thing for a company to improve their products.
Gatekeeping comes as a result of limited access to the market, and the bandwidth prices skyrockets. 2Africa is aiming to open some of this up. South Africa and Kenya are a good example of countries within the continent, with many cables coming and shared across multiple parties. The pricing is relatively low and will reflect on other regions, too, as the project commences.
Consortium parties such as MTN still raises eyebrows. According to Sunil Tagare, a competitive analyst, these consortium parties will yet have a competitive advantage. “This deal is probably the second-best thing that could have happened. Ideally, the smaller carriers would also have been part of the deal. Hopefully, these seven or eight carriers will start filling capacity, and there will be a price trickle-down.” He said.
Good for the Continent
Phares Kariuki, Node Africa CEO and technologist has advised the Kenyan government on cable connectivity projects. He believes that 2Africa cable is suitable for the continent. On the other hand, he has reservations about the social media giant.
Facebook is a problematic company. “I don’t agree with what they’re doing around Facebook Zero [in which provides waive data charges for accessing Facebook on phones via a text-only version of its mobile site] because it works against net neutrality. However, this is a particularly well-designed policy initiative, at least on the surface.” He said.
There seems to be more advantage that comes along with the project. Countries in West Africa will now have the luxury of proper connectivity. If it is laid as the plan says with nothing hidden in between, then this could be the best thing to happen to Africa after 20 years of slow connectivity and paying a colossal amount of money to stay connected.
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