An Orange-led consortium has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop Via Africa, a new 20,000-kilometre subsea cable system linking Europe to West Africa and extending south toward South Africa along the Atlantic coastline, in one of the most significant digital infrastructure announcements on the continent this year.
The founding consortium members are Canalink, GUILAB, International Mauritania Telecom, Orange Group, Orange Côte d’Ivoire, Sonatel and Silverlinks. The project will land in the United Kingdom, France and Portugal at the European end, with destinations along the West African coast including the Canary Islands, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria, with extensions planned further south to improve connectivity diversity for countries along the route.
“Every two days somewhere in the world you have a cable cut or failure,” Michaël Trabbia, Chief Executive Officer of Orange Wholesale, told TechCabal. “Different routes are necessary to ensure that you maintain connectivity even in the event of one or two cable cuts.”
Developed by a consortium led by Orange, Via Africa will span more than 20,000 kilometres across the Atlantic, positioning it among the longest subsea cable systems serving the continent. Meta’s 2Africa remains the world’s longest submarine cable at 45,000 kilometres. Nigeria, which already hosts eight submarine cables, the highest in West Africa, remains one of Africa’s biggest internet and data markets but continues to face persistent fibre cuts, vandalism and network congestion amid growing demand for digital services.
The project is structured as an open consortium, with additional partners invited to join. The model gives co-investors direct participation in decisions covering the design, deployment and operation of the system, a structure the consortium described as designed to support the autonomy and digital sovereignty of participating nations. This governance model distinguishes Via Africa from cables like Google’s Equiano and Meta’s 2Africa, where African operators hold landing rights but limited ownership control.
While Africa has 77 active or planned subsea cable systems, the majority of the continent’s international bandwidth remains concentrated in a small number of markets. The project is also expected to terminate in major data centres, potentially attracting cloud providers and hyperscalers seeking to expand digital infrastructure investments in Africa. Trabbia confirmed that hyperscalers are increasingly investing in the continent and described Via Africa as a primary infrastructure vehicle for that expansion.
The cable will incorporate enhanced protection technologies including burial in areas up to 2,000 metres deep and additional physical shielding to reduce damage from ship anchors and other marine activity, which are among the leading causes of the subsea disruptions that have repeatedly knocked out internet services across West Africa in recent years.
Via Africa was first announced on May 12, 2026, during the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, attended by African heads of state, French President Emmanuel Macron, and business executives from Africa and Europe. At the summit, Orange announced a broader expansion of its digital ambitions on the continent, including plans to train more than three million young people in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, cloud computing and digital entrepreneurship by 2030, expand its network of Orange Digital Centres from 50 to 100 across Africa and the Middle East, and support more than 500 additional startups in sectors including healthcare, agriculture, fintech, education and e-commerce.
Orange estimates the project will take three to four years to complete once consortium arrangements are finalised.
