Africa News: MTN Plans New $320 Million Inland Fiber Cable

Jul 06, 2023

MTN Group Ltd. headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Anthony Osae-Brown and

Loni Prinsloo

Subscriber Benefit

Subscribe

MTN Group Ltd., Africa's biggest mobile-phone operator, plans to build a $320 million inland fiber cable to connect ten countries, as telecommunications companies push to expand service to the continent's growing population.

The Johannesburg-based firm, through its MTN GlobalConnect unit and the Africa50 infrastructure investment agency, will start building the East2West link in the fourth quarter, MTN said in a statement. The project will add about 20,000 kilometers (12,400 miles) of new cable and interconnect over 100,000 kilometers of fiber, it said.