On 14 May 2020, China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN Globalconnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC announced their intention to build 2Africa -one of the largest global subsea projects linking 23 African countries, the Middle East, and Europe.

The partners chose Alcatel Submarine Network (ASN) to build the 37 000 km long cable, with landings in 16 African countries. With a capacity of 180 Tbps on key parts of its system, 2Africa has more than the combined capacity of all the submarine cables serving Africa today, and uses SDM1 technology which supports 16 fibres instead of 8.

The President of ASN, Alain Biston, said that they were honoured to have been chosen for a project which will help push Africa into the digital age.