Consortium advances new Europe-Africa subsea cable

A new submarine cable initiative linking Europe and Africa along the Atlantic corridor is moving forward following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by a group of international telecom and digital infrastructure investors

The project, known as Via Africa, is intended to strengthen connectivity capacity, support rising data traffic demand and improve network resilience across the African continent.

The consortium behind the project includes Canalink, GUILAB, International Mauritania Telecom, Orange Group, Orange Côte d'Ivoire, Sonatel and Silverlinks.

The planned subsea system will establish a new route connecting Europe to South Africa, with landing stations expected in the United Kingdom, France and Portugal. The cable will also serve several Atlantic coastal destinations including the Canary Islands, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria, with further southern extensions planned to increase route diversity and connectivity reliability across additional African markets.

The project is structured around a consortium model that enables participating organisations to jointly invest in the infrastructure while taking part in governance and strategic decision-making. The approach is designed to provide partners with greater operational independence and infrastructure sovereignty while allowing them to contribute directly to decisions concerning system design, deployment and future operation.

Project stakeholders noted that the consortium framework remains open, with opportunities for additional telecom operators and digital infrastructure players to join the initiative at a later stage.

Via Africa is expected to improve the resilience of Africa’s international communications infrastructure by creating an alternative subsea pathway to complement existing cable systems. The new route is intended to strengthen redundancy and diversify connectivity options for countries located along the Atlantic coast.

During the project’s initial phase, consortium members will jointly fund a detailed marine route study aimed at determining the most suitable cable path based on technical, economic and resilience considerations.

At the same time, preparations are underway for the procurement phase, including the selection of a cable manufacturing and deployment partner as the project advances toward implementation.