Luanda – Angolan minister of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication Mário Oliveira stressed on Sunday in Luanda the Government's commitment to infrastructure to ensure the technological future of the country.
The minister said this at the landing ceremony of 2 Africa subsea cable on the waterfront of the Cacuaco municipality in Luanda on Sunday.
He said the connection will enable Angola’s improvements in various aspects, such as knowledge, development, science, digital economy, improved employment and “a better future for all”.
“A country can only be built with knowledge, awareness, development and also with great leadership. Our country has great leadership and proof of that is the support we gave to Unitel, wisely guided by the President of the Republic, in order to embrace 2Africa project”, he said.
He also noted that with infrastructure, the sector is putting into practice what is set out in the white paper on telecommunications and information technology, “namely, when we are ready to transform Angola into an important hub for telecommunications in African.
He highlighted that with the aforementioned cable, the country will make its contribution to improving communications with the countries bordering Angola.
The official recalled that in this month of July “we inaugurated yet another fiber optic connection to Zambia and the DRC.
Links already exist with Namibia, with this infrastructure we will be able to improve links with these countries and also give substance to an African network that is being built in collaboration with all African countries”.
More than 45,000 km long, the submarine cable system is designed to provide continuous international connectivity for approximately 3 billion people, representing 36% of the global population, and connecting three continents, Africa, Europe and Asia.
The system is expected to come on stream in 2024, and is expected to deliver more than the total combined capacity of all submarine cables currently serving Africa, with a design capacity of up to 180 Tbps (Terabits per second) in the main segments of the system.
The project is a consortium with Vodafone, WIOCC, China Mobile International, MTN, Orange, Telecom Egypt, STC and Meta (Facebook).
UNITEL is the only Angolan operator to join the consortium, with an investment of USD 52 million, being responsible for creating conditions for mooring and operating the 2Africa cable connection to Angola.
Through its national fiber optic network, UNITEL will be able to provide access to national telecommunications operators and to telecommunications operators in neighbouring countries, like Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia. HEM/NE/NIC
