Google to lay first subsea cable linking Africa and Australia

Google Fibre cable

Google is to lay the first submarine fibre optic cable linking Africa directly to Australia.

Dubbed Umoja, which means unity in Swahili, the overland portion of the project starts in Kenya and travels through Rwanda, DRC, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, reports Techcrunch. From South Africa, a submarine cable will travel to Perth, Australia

Liquid Technologies, a subsidiary of pan-African tech firm Cassava Technologies, has already laid the terrestrial cable, while Google has started work on channelling for the submarine cable to Australia.

The project is part of the AfricaConnect initiative, which supports the roll-out of high-quality stable internet linking the continent to the rest of the world.

Google is also responsible for the privately funded 15 000 km Equiano subsea cable linking Europe, from Portugal, to West Africa’s coast. The Equiano cable went live in 2022. The company also opened its cloud data centre in Johannesburg at the beginning of 2024.

News of the Umoja project follows closely on submarine cable outages that largely cut off East Africa from the rest of the world.

Based on the average time it takes to lay a cable of this nature, TechCrunch estimated Umoja will be open to internet traffic in 2026.

Kenyan President William Ruto welcomed the project, saying: “This initiative is crucial in ensuring the redundancy and resilience of our region’s connectivity to the rest of the world, especially in light of recent disruptions caused by cuts to sub-sea cables.

“By strengthening our digital backbone, we are not only improving reliability but also paving the way for increased digital inclusion, innovation, and economic opportunities for our people and businesses.”

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