Africa’s Biggest Mobile Firm Plans New $320 Million Fiber Cable

MTN Group, Africa’s biggest mobile-phone operator, plans to build a $320 million inland fiber cable to connect ten countries, as telecommunications companies push to expand service to the continent’s growing population. The Johannesburg-based firm, through its MTN GlobalConnect unit and the Africa50 infrastructure investment agency, will start building the East2West link in the fourth quarter of 2023, MTN said. The project will add about 20,000 kilometers (12,400 miles) of new cable and interconnect over 100,000 kilometers of fiber. Wireless carriers in Africa are increasingly investing in infrastructure as they seek to make money from services offered on their networks. Africa needs at least 500,000 more kilometers of fiber optic cables, according to MTN. Wireless carriers and US tech giants including Alphabet’s Google and Meta’s Facebook are also heavily investing in efforts to provide better connections to the continent’s young, fast-growing and tech-savvy population.