06 April 2022
Google’s Portugal to South Africa Equiano subsea cable has landed in Lomé, Togo, making it the third cable to land in the west African country.
The Silicon Valley-headquartered search and cloud giant announced its Equiano privately-funded submarine cable between Africa and Europe in 2019. The cable – featuring 12 fibre pairs and a design capacity of 150Tbps – will link Portugal to South Africa, with branches planned in Nigeria, St. Helena, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Namibia.
Société d’Infrastructures Numériques (SIN), CSquared, and Google announced the cable had landed in the Togolese capital. As part of the announcement, the former, a public telecommunications asset company, has partnered with CSquared, an open access wholesale broadband infrastructure company, to create a joint venture, known as CSquared Woezon.
The new joint venture, 56% owned by CSquared, will be in charge of maintaining and operating the Equiano submarine cable as well as the existing e-Government and Communauté Electrique du Bénin (CEB) terrestrial optic fibre networks located in Togo.
“As Togo continues to earn its place on the regional and international stage as a digital hub and a favorable ecosystem for innovation and investment, our collaboration with Google and CSquared in successfully landing Equiano further demonstrates Togo’s commitment to enhancing public and social services for all citizens so that they can benefit economically,” said Cina Lawson, minister of digital economy and digital transformation for Togo.
Equiano cable system is the third private international cable owned by Google and the 14th subsea cable invested by Google. Hyperscalers including Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon are also increasingly investing in subsea cables.
“The landing of Equiano affirms Google’s commitment to the African continent, to support Africa’s digital transformation,” said Nitin Gajria, managing director of Google sub-Saharan Africa. “We are thrilled that Togo will be Equiano’s first landing on the African continent, as it aligns with the country’s continuing efforts to promote digital inclusion for Africa. We look forward to working closely with the Togolese Government and The Ministry of Digital Economy and Transformation as they continue to build their digital infrastructure.”
Alcatel Submarine Network is manufacturing and installing the Equiano cable system. WIOCC is building the landing station for Nigeria in Lagos, while Liquid Intelligent Technologies is building one for the cable in DRC. In South Africa, the cable is landing at Telkom’s Melkbosstrand Cable Landing Station north of Cape Town. Paratus is developing the landing station in Namibia.
Currently, two other cables land in Togo: the Maroc Telecom West Africa cable running from Libreville, Gabon to Casablanca, Morocco; and the West Africa Cable System (WACS) running from Yzerfontein, South Africa to Seixal, Portugal and then to Highbridge, England.
Equiano will be the first cable to land at St. Helena, because the SAEx cable from South Africa to Brazil and the US, which was meant to land on the island, is still in development. It will be only the second cable to land in Namibia and third in DRC.
