Pioneer, CSquared Woezon connect Togo to Equiano cable

Submarine fiber optic telecommunications company, Pioneer Consulting, has completed deployment of the Togolese branch of Google's Equiano subsea cable on CSquared Woezon's behalf.

The subsea cable branch will offer advanced connectivity to Togo and additional diversification of the West African country's digital infrastructure.

In a statement, the company said the Togo branch can provide up to 3 Tbit/s of capacity between Togo and Portugal, with additional connectivity to Nigeria and South Africa planned during the remainder of 2023.

This is the second subsea cable to land in Togo, it follows the Maroc Telecom West Africa system that connects the West African coast with Morocco.

Therefore, the Equiano link not only provides a redundant link for enhanced reliability, but it also provides extra broadband capacity.

Equiano is the second subsea cable to land in Togo, it follows the Maroc Telecom West Africa system that connects West Africa with Morocco. (Source: Image by www.slon.pics on Freepik).

"This subsea cable branch will offer advanced broadband, providing increased Internet access for work, school, telehealth, and entertainment for the Togolese community," said Pioneer Consulting Managing Partner Gavin Tully.

CSquared Woezon is a joint venture formed last year by CSquared and Togolese state-owned telecoms asset company Société d'Infrastructures Numériques (SIN) to oversee the development of the Equiano branch.

Pioneer landed a contract from CSquared Woezon for the overall design, procurement and implementation of the cable landing station and the system's transmission equipment in March 2022.

Equiano African journey

Google's Equiano has been making headlines in recent times, last month, Italian-headquartered international service provider Sparkle signed an agreement with UAE-based Kush Investments firm for the provision of virtual fiber services.

Equiano's journey began in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2019, and has had several stops along the western coast of Africa.

The subsea cable system runs 15,000km between Portugal and South Africa. It landed in Cape Town, South Africa, in August 2022, after a landing in Swakopmund, Namibia, in July 2022. Besides Togo it also runs through Nigeria and Saint Helena to connect Africa to Europe.

Telecoms services provider Seacom went live on Google's Equiano cable in March 2023.

In October 2022, Liquid Dataport, a subsidiary of Cassava Technologies, purchased a pair of fiber cables on the Equiano cable.

Subsea cable boom

As Africa undergoes a cable boom, Equiano forms part of a series of subsea systems that are due to go live in the next two years.

Meta is part of a consortium – along with Bayobab (formerly MTN GlobalConnect), Orange, Vodafone, China Mobile International, Saudi Telecom, Telecom Egypt and WIOCC – that is rolling out the 2Africa subsea cable system.

2Africa will fully encircle the continent from Europe, past South Africa, and will continue counter-clockwise up the Indian Ocean, crossing overland in Egypt and then connecting back to Europe on the Italian, French and Spanish shores.

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Equiano and 2Africa have been punted as game-changers for Africa's connectivity future.

Elsewhere, Liquid Dataport is due to provide subsea capacity on the PEACE cable between Mombasa, Karachi and Marseille, with extensions planned towards Singapore and Asia.

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*Top image is Equiano's planned route and branching units, from which additional potential landings can be built. (Source: Google).

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa