Kathy Gibson reports – Seacom, which pioneered Africa’s submarine cable boom 16 years ago, is planning a major new undersea network.
Seacom 2.0, due to be completed by 2029, is designed to carry the data traffic that will be generated by Africa’s embrace of digitisation and artificial intelligence (AI).
By 2030, networks are expected to carry over 10-billion AI agents, and Seacom 2.0 aims to serve as the backbone for this AI-driven revolution.
Looking further ahead, the system is engineered to support a world population of 10-billion by 2050, with the Indian Ocean Basin projected to house half of humanity.
The Seacom 2.0 cable will be the first use of a 48-fibre-pair architecture designed to handle high-capacity, low-latency AI workloads. Cable landing stations will transform into AI communication nodes, linking African nations’ sovereign AI infrastructure to global data hubs.
Richard Schumacher, MD: digital infrastructure at Seacom, points out that the existing cable was laid 16 years ago and upgraded last year. The new capacity has already been sold out.
“We are thinking about what is coming next and starting the cycle early,” he says.
Schumacher explains that subsea cables are the backbone of the Internet. “What we call the first mile. The second mile is terrestrial connectivity and the last mile is the connectivity to the end user.”
The new network will connect the east coast of Africa to India and Singapore. Where it traverses the Red Sea, the new cable will hug the African coast in order to avoid the Yemen coast where issues are most likely to occur – and are difficult to remediate.
The first phase of the project will connect Egypt to Mombasa, with the second phase continuing the line to South Africa.
“Africa is one of the developing continents in terms of digital transformation and we are future-proofing its digital economy,” Schumacher says.
The Seacom 2.0 project is expected to cost between $1,5-billion and $2-billion, and Seacom is looking to private equity investors to fund it.
Meanwhile, Seacom is working on developing technology that will allow it to open up landlocked countries in Africa, but using submarine technology to create terrestrial cables that can withstand hostile terrain.
“This will allow us to further empower Africa,” says Pranesh Padayachee, chief technology and operations officer at Seacom Digital Infrastructure
Today, Seacom is unveiling a new brand that represents its position as a leading fibre provider, opening up the African market to the world.
The rebrand marks a strategic leap for Seacom, showcasing its expanded capabilities, renewed purpose, and ambitious vision for Africa’s digital future. “Our new brand embodies the energy, innovation and growth we are driving across the continent and beyond ,” says Alpheus Mangale, Seacom Group CEO.
“This is about more than design, it’s about purpose. We are a dynamic, forward-thinking company deeply connected to Africa’s growth story, ready to power the next wave of digital progress across the continent,” adds Mandisa Ntloko-Petersen, Seacom Group chief marketing officer.
“The new refreshed brand representation with its strong tagline supports the client-centric approach of Seacom, always guiding, partnering and accompanying the client on their digital journey. The new tagline of taking you beyond acts as an intensifier beyond the present, unleashing the business potential that a relationship with Seacom can bring beyond the present,” she says.