INTELLIGENT

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2Africa is one of the world ’ s largest submarine telecommunications cable projects , driven by a group of partners . The cable will circumnavigate the continent of Africa , directly connecting 16 countries to Europe and the Middle East . This will deliver much-needed Internet capacity and reliability , underpinning the further growth of 4G , 5G and fixed broadband access for hundreds of millions of people . The project will also drive the growth of increasingly digitised economies across Europe by strengthening connectivity between European countries .

GN1 will have a direct fibre connection to ML5 , the soon-to-be opened Equinix flagship data centre in Milan , and will allow Equinix customers to increase the number of partners they connect with and expand their reach into new markets . The combination of 2Africa ’ s landing in the new Genoa site and the direct connection to Milan means GN1 will offer a new , complementary and diverse alternative option for the Mediterranean region . Indeed , as Genoa ’ s first carrier-neutral data centre , GN1 will offer customers secure , resilient colocation and interconnection services , as well as the ability to directly leverage Equinix ’ s digital ecosystems and colocation facilities in Milan . It will provide a capacity of 150 cabinet equivalents and colocation space of approximately 6,000 square feet ( 560 square metres ).

2Africa is expected to deliver more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables serving Africa today , with a design capacity of up to 180 Tbps on key segments of the system . This will be vital to help build a digital society ready for services that require a large amount of data transfer , such as cloud computing or video .

The need for robust digital infrastructures can be seen across the world , and Africa is no exception . The continent is experiencing a critical period of Digital Transformation and development of its digital economy . In the next few years , digital technologies are expected to be a factor in improving African people ’ s quality of life and driving economic development in the region .

Nick Gliddon , Director , Vodafone Carrier Services , said : “ The 2Africa project is vitally important to improving connectivity between Europe , Africa and the Middle East , and will also improve intra-European connectivity . By linking Spain and Portugal directly to Genoa and Milan , the system will avoid fibre bottlenecks that naturally occur between France and Spain , further strengthening Vodafone ’ s Gigabit networks .” •

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