Google’s subsea internet cable, Equiano, has finally landed in Namibia.
Equiano is Google’s first subsea cable in Africa. It is meant to connect Europe and Africa via a cable running along the west coast of Africa from Portugal to South Africa. What this means is that Africans will have faster internet speeds and less latency.
The cable landed in Togo in March of this year, and Nigeria in April. After 2 months of snaking its way across the continent, it’s finally in Swakopmund, Namibia.
In a statement shared on LinkedIn, CEO of Paratus Group Barney Harmse, whose company was 1 of 2 selected to build the cable landing station (CLS) in Namibia (the other one being Telecom Namibia) stated that the cable will significantly increase Namibia’s international bandwidth capacity.
Equiano is set to increase internet speeds in Namibia by over 2.5 times and also increase Namibia’s 41% internet penetration by 7.5% in the next 3 years.
At its anchoring in Togo, experts predicted that Equiano would help create approximately 37,000 new jobs between 2022 and 2025. In Namibia, the cable is also expected to indirectly help create 21,000 jobs by 2025.
