Google he said will lay a fiber optic cable connecting Africa and Australia on Thursday. One end of the cable, called Umoja (the Swahili word for “unity”), will start in Kenya and run through Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa (with entry points for the countries). Crossing the Indian Ocean to the land below.
Google says the project is designed to “increase digital connectivity, accelerate economic growth and deepen resilience in Africa.” In addition to the cable itself, the company says it will work with the Kenyan government to increase cyber security, data-driven innovation, digital skills development and the responsible and safe deployment of AI.
Umoja will connect to Equiano, Google’s private undersea cable It runs between Portugal and South Africa (with pitstops in other nations).
Google says the new route is critical to bolstering network resilience in a region with a history of “high-impact outages.” In other words, more network redundancy makes outages less catastrophic for an area’s broadband infrastructure.
“The new transcontinental fiber optic route will significantly enhance our global and regional digital infrastructure,” Kenyan President William Ruto wrote about the initiative in a Google blog post. “This initiative is critical to ensuring the redundancy and resilience of our region’s connectivity with the rest of the world, especially in light of recent disruptions caused by undersea cable outages. By strengthening our digital backbone, we not only improve reliability, but also pave the way for increased digital inclusion, innovation and economic opportunity for our people and businesses.”
