A consortium of investors including Orange Group, Orange Côte d’Ivoire, Sonatel, Canalink, GUILAB, International Mauritania Telecom, and Silverlinks has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to launch the Via Africa submarine cable project.
The initiative is designed to strengthen international connectivity between Europe and Africa and improve the resilience and capacity of digital networks across the continent as data traffic continues to grow.
Subsea cable to link Europe and Africa
The proposed Via Africa system will connect Europe to South Africa, with landing points planned in the United Kingdom, France, and Portugal, as well as multiple Atlantic coastal locations in Africa.
Planned African landing points include the Canary Islands, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria, with further extensions expected further south to enhance regional connectivity diversity.
The consortium said the project aims to provide an alternative subsea route to existing infrastructure, improving redundancy and strengthening network resilience across key digital corridors.
Consortium model to guide development
The Via Africa system will be developed under a consortium model, allowing participating telecom and digital infrastructure partners to co-invest in the project and share governance responsibilities.
Orange Group said the structure enables partners to contribute to decisions related to system design, deployment, and long-term operation, ensuring alignment with regional connectivity needs.
The consortium is also open to additional partners joining in future phases of the project.
Next phase focuses on route and supplier selection
As part of the initial stage, consortium members will jointly fund a cable route study to determine the most efficient and resilient path for the system, balancing technical feasibility with economic considerations.
The next step will involve launching a procurement process to select a cable supplier for the project’s development.
Sonatel and other partners said the initiative is intended to improve connectivity diversity across Africa while supporting long-term digital infrastructure growth on the continent.
